FOOTBALL

No More Free Rides In Big Ten

I’m hearing mixed reactions from USC fans about today’s news.

Some are ecstatic at the schedule upgrade. Others find it ridiculous that USC teams are going to travel 3,000 miles for league games.

One thing is certain: USC coaches will no longer get free rides with games in Tucson, Pullman, Corvallis, etc.

If things stay as they currently are (which is unlikely), USC’s road trips for football and basketball are going to be brutal.

Imagine USC going to play in the snow at Michigan State, Minnesota or Wisconsin?

The Big Ten teams who come out once a year to L.A. have it easy. USC and UCLA and going to be going through all the hardships.

I already said Lincoln Riley won’t like it. Chip Kelly really won’t like it.

89 thoughts on “No More Free Rides In Big Ten”

  1. Ed. G has never been more right. Forcing Trojans to relocate to Big Ten territory doesn’t make sense. Photos are already popping up of the entire USC English Department —faculty & students— camped out on the shore of Lake Michigan —many look to be suffering from cold and hunger.
    Things just seem to keep getting worse under the Biden Regime.

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      2. Have you been listening to the Jan.6th hearings. Everyone testifying against T-Rump has been a Republican save for 2 election workers. Note they testified under oath not like a lot of the T-Rump sycophants who refuse to testify or invoke the 5th. I would love to see the orange orangutan testify under oath. You know he doesn’t have the balls to do that. Apparently you think Fox & Tucker specifically are the arbiters of truth or maybe the pillow guy. The MSM that you seem to have a problem with yet you never ever offer countermanding verifiable evidence to support your suggestion that their reporting is false or inaccurate.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Stu just could be S’s full name….
        #JustAnEducatedGuessBasedOnLackOfWritingStyle

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      4. Yeah, Stu sounds about as bright as someone claiming we’re better off now under Dementia Joe. LOL

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    3. If USC knew they would end up in the Big Ten, I wonder if they would’ve gone after Lincoln Riley as their head coach? Hmmm 🤔

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    4. So you apparently like the corrupt pathological liar, malignant narcissist, serial adulterer, Grifter/Conman, MORON/IDIOT, twice impeached orange orangutan that besmirched the office of the presidency. Wow! What does it say about your moral & ethical standards?

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      1. Great reply!!!!…. When you’re stuck up the orange Cheeto’s asshole, morals and standards are left on the keister. A massive fart might free you!

        #MyShitDon’tStink

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  2. What’s important is, what does Walton think?!

    He must say “The Conference of Champions” at least 20 times during a basketball game.

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    1. HOLD ON sloooo cal… !!!!! Speaking of “a lot worse”, let’s review here. I know you have selective memory!

      During the orange cheeto’s watch, the floundering buffoon ran from covid. He had unemployment at the highest level in recorded history, over 20%, 40 million unemployed, GPD at negative 39%, the entire public school system shut down, he used socialism to save capitalism, and the worst part, 5k people a day were dying.

      His idea of fighting covid was to parade out to the podium daily, and pat himself on the back, while blaming the radical left for his incompetence.

      So, with all that said, please, tell me what is “a lot worse” regarding Biden? Take your time, and focus.(LOL)….Here’s your reality, you couldn’t debate yourself out of a paper bag, pathetic!

      #CRICKETS!

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      1. Hey gabby give so cal a break he gets all his information from that Murdoch bs propaganda machine and thinks it is all true and factual

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      2. I take great pleasure in slapping him around like a pinata. Trump shut down his brain and he totally forgot what happened back in 2020. Beside trump, he idolizes Tucker, pathetic!

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      3. yeah, we should listen only to the msm that covered up Joe’s dementia & the family’s corruption prior to the election and is now acting surprised to be learning of both, if they mention it at all.

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      4. ONCE AGAIN!…. You deflect my questions, why? I truly think you suffer from some type of cognitive disorder.

        Or, do you lack the skill set to argue the affirmative, which is it?

        #LIMITED

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      5. Gabby,

        Your opinion is wrong. President Trump had an operation called Warp Speed, meaning that he wanted the covid medicine produced as fast as possible. he also wanted to stop anyone coming in from China and your friends biden and pelosi said that was wrong. When you get your fact stragiht let us kmnow.

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  3. Now that the university administrators FINALLY got rid of the horrible commissioner larry scott, there is a chance that Kliavkoff can begin to revive the conference. If Pac12 puts a quality product on the field that beats the Big 10, ACC and SEC, the money will come. The same fools that let larry scott destroy the conference appear to be now wanting to bury the conference with this fool’s plan. The travel, the poor weather, the lack of readiness to compete in the Big 10 is apparently not being considered. I find it an ill thought plan. I’d like to know who put this mess together. They should be fired.

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    1. Carra –Do you think it’s more than a little weird that at the VERY moment USC is poised to make a comeback, we’re being told the playing field has shifted to the snow and the sleet? The only thing that can kill USC’s attractiveness in the new NIL environment is an announcement that we’ll be leaving the sunshine and traveling thousands of miles into the very areas high school students come to USC to get away from.

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      1. Michael, you are right. I do believe the idea of SC coming back to prominence is not a well-received idea for any of the power conferences. Any help to keep us in our place is desirable. It is disturbing to me that the USC & UCLA administrators appear to have lost their ability to think about the impact on the players. This is not a player friendly situation.
        The travel time and weather changes are brutal. The Ducks and, especially that egomaniac Lanning, are wringing their hands with joy getting SC out of their way. If it goes through, I want to see Bohn and Folt sitting in the stands while the snow and wind attacks them.

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      2. Then why is it students opt for the ice cold winters of South Bend over So. Central L.A. Good players want to play for the best teams first and foremost. NIL is not the primary consideration for most recruits, it is the team and their chances of success. Like Alabama, Clemson, ND, and soon again USC.

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      3. They still get to live in beautiful southern california. Ohio State and Michigan recruit great players and they have to live in that weather year-round. We will still be playing UCLA every year, I assume.

        Anyone who thinks this makes USC less attractive to the top 100 players just doesnt understand recruiting. This is a big step in the right direction to national prominence.

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    2. So cal said, it was Biden’s plan to move to the BIG10. He still insists the butt-dart(hemorrhoid) on his taint strip was from the daily stress triggered by Biden. For once, I believe him.

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    3. They understand football better than you do. It is about the money and the competition. Athletes want to compete in a league where they will get the most exposure. There is simply no way to remain nationally competitive in the Pac-12. You cant afford to get half the media rights money as other major programs.

      USC will immediately get a boost in recruiting, as players will see that they will be playing in games that are the spotlight of the week. As far as weather, travelling to Utah or Colorado late in the season could be just as cold and it is at altitude. If you are getting on a plane to Oregon State, it isnt much different from getting on a plane to Ohio, maybe an hour or two flight time difference.

      The only real disadvantage is time zone.

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  4. I travel a lot and I don’t see where the travel time (5 hrs) is such a huge deal. Pack, get on bus, get on plane, get off plane, go to hotel, eat, sleep, play game, pack, get on plane, get off plane, get on bus, get home, unpack, go to bed. USC players are all wearing Beats headphones so the time will be well spent listening to rap and hip hop. Coaches can finally get some sleep on those long long flights from Minneapolis and Dayton.

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  5. If you think Lincoln Riley did not know about this, or at least the potential of this, then you just aren’t paying attention. Bohn from day one has said “ all options are on the table” when asked about moving conferences or going independent. I’m sure it will come out that Riley knew all along.

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    1. What does it matter. If he knew ahead of time he made a smart move. If he didn’t know ahead of time, surprise!

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  6. The travel worries to places like Northwestern are irrelevant. The end result here is obviously two behemoth power conferences – SEC and Big 10 (or whatever it ends up being called) – where all the programs are going to be traveling all over the country on a yearly basis.

    I expect we will eventually see more west coast teams (Oregon for sure) added to this Big 10 conglomorate.

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  7. Lincoln Riley’s going to have to earn his money, no more free rides that he thought he was going to get with the soft finesse teams in the PAC 12. And he’ll have to adjust his football philosophy too, because that air raid offense won’t get you into the playoffs in the Big Ten… I guarantee !!

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    1. Oh, good. You’ve come up with the best reason of all to join the Big Ten.
      Where do we sign?
      #WhoCaresAboutTheDumbPlayoffs?

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    3. JJ, you are right. However, Riley inherited the disaster left by helton and the cupboards were bare in many critical areas and as we see, it’s not a slam dunk that we can recruit the 5 stars we want on the lines. Riley hasn’t even been here a year and he’s already done an amazing job of mopping up the mess. He needs time to build the team and fully change the culture before he’s forced into playing with the more physical teams. Once he gets those lines, they in concert with the air raid and running game will be hard to beat. Then, we can compete. Now, we are not ready and it’s poor leadership to put the players in that situation.

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      2. Riley transformed the roster in 6 months. He has another 2 years to get it the rest of the way.

        Do USC fans actually think that every lineman recruited by Michigan or Ohio State is a 5 star athlete. Wake up. There are only a few of them.

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  8. Bad Idea for SUCC. They will go from the “Big foot in a small pond,” to a guppy in a lake.

    Stanford or Washington are better Big10 fits than SUCC. Hell, SUCC can’t even hire a baseball head coach.

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    2. UCLA had better hope visiting fans from the Big 10 travel as well as visiting fans from the Pac 12, or else they won’t have more than 10K butts in the seats.

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    4. You ever see a Big foot in a small pond? Really scary!! Thing about a guppy in a lake, if he doesn’t get eaten he grows into a predator and runs the lake.

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  9. Imagine USC going to play in the snow at Michigan State, Minnesota or Wisconsin? I have been to 2 USC-Big Ten Road Games. Minnesota in September 1980, a beautiful Autumn Day in Minneapolis. Illinois in September 1985, perhaps other than Purdue at the Coliseum in August 1998, the hottest USC game I ever been to, definitely the most miserable with the Humidity. Wished there was a little snow.

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  10. Scooter,

    One advantage to this, If SC plays an 8 PM game Eastern Time, that means the game will start at 5 PM. However, if they play at 12 PM, that is 9 AM our time. so they play between the hours of 9 AM to 5 PM. No more 8 pm start times.

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  11. Scooter
    It might be best that only football goes to the BIG 10. the rest of the sports stay in the PAC 12, I don’t think track and field will do well in February back in Minnesota, outdoors. Does Cal and Stanford leave?

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  12. Well there goes the tradition of USC vs. Big 10 in the Rose Bowl. Can’t wait to play Oregon once a year in Pasadena. OH GOODY! (So lame.)

    Will we still play Notre Dame once a year? That cupcake UCLA? 4 nonconference cupcakes? That leaves 6 B10 teams to play. NE, MN, IL, Northwestern, Iowa, Wisconsin. The midwestern weather is tougher than most of those teams.

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  14. Scooter,

    Will SC take a cut in pay if they go to the BIG 10? They will have to share the revenue with big time schools and they will not be happy to have to share with outsiders.

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    1. The new tv agreement for the big10 is around a billion a year. USC will never see that much money in the pac12. I did say BILLION!! Divide one billion by the number of teams in the new B1G and you may see why USC and especially running in the red ucla are going for it. As it plays out, the contracts go in order of B1G, SEC, ACC, PAC12, Big12. I would rather be at the front of that line than at the end of it.

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      1. “I’d prefer to be in the front of the line than the end of it.”
        How many times did Helton say those exact words to his players before they hit the showers?….

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  15. Scooter,

    do you think this is a ploy to get the PAC 12 to make more revenue for SC and get a better cut of the revenue since they are the flagship to the PAC 12? Ugly only eats the crumbs left behind by SC.

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  18. Roy Kramer, the mastermind of building the SEC into what it is today poured over stats to confirm = longer the distance to travel, the less wins, the more travel of Southern teams to cold weather, the less wins. The SEC built their schedule around it. We’ve locked in the worst type of scheduling. And we don’t travel as well as fans as the Big 10 anyway, even when playing near. Our offense (which will have to change from what was going on with the Air Raid under Harrell and LR at OU) will find that in weather we lose our advantage in types of recruits. But it may not be as done of a deal as we hear, hopefully.

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    1. Your comments are logically sound. I don’t understand how any USC or UCLA administrator could agree to this debacle. BTW, what happens to the sports other than football. It may prove a real devastation.

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  19. “One thing is certain: USC coaches will no longer get free rides with games in Tucson, Pullman, Corvallis, etc.”

    Correct. Those free rides will now be in College Park, Piscataway, and West Lafayette.

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  20. John Canzano writes this whole thing is orchestrated By FOX.

    Every Midwest sporting event RT travel time will add at least a day. At Very poor hours at times. 2-3 hrs jet lag. Travel time to udub is once every two years. No time zone jet lag. 1,000 miles –2 two hrs.

    SC and uclol will drop as many low revenue sports as possible.

    Snow flurries starting the end of sept. Have fun guys.

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  24. I hope it’s a ploy to get the league to change its rules. The Wolfman is right…..SC is going to have a real disadvantage with a lot of these road games. Traveling that distance and then playing a game is a disadvantage.

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    1. “Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said in a statement. “We are excited that our values align with the league’s member institutions. We also will benefit from the stability and strength of the conference; the athletic caliber of Big Ten institutions; the increased visibility, exposure, and resources the conference will bring our student-athletes and programs; and the ability to expand engagement with our passionate alumni nationwide.”

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  26. If true, this ends any idea of the “student athlete” at USC. You cannot travel the country on a weekly basis without it affecting the time and dedication necessary to pursuing an academic and professional vision – doctor, lawyer, professor, engineer, accountant, financial consultant, ect. Students will need to make a choice – athletics or academics and a professional career, not both. All sports other than football and perhaps boys basketball will eventually be wiped out. Baseball and most female sports will not survive. All starting football players will be paid to be football players. Academic scholarship will mean nothing. I do not believe this will be a good development. I used to love the cities on the Pacific Coast and their academic institutions and sporting teams and competition between the schools but now that will be no more. So who do we blame for these changes to out centuries old traditions. First, greed and the media. But also in the false idea that a full athletic scholarship for playing a sport was somehow exploitative to the student athlete. A degree from a prestigious college means a lot. If Reggie Bush was injured in the first game of his junior year, and could never play football again, he still would have received something of real value if he had completed his education. He most likely still would have experience real financial success.

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      1. Steveg49 – it is a dismal picture. That is my point. So what don’t you agree with in my statement. It may benefit USC in the short term but it will not benefit the “student athlete.” The collegiate/professional non student will like it until it destroys college athletics.

        Liked by 1 person

  27. So does that mean we’ll schedule Georgia Southern as a warm up in 2025? I hear their head coach can teach us a few things.

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  28. Good move. 3-4 B10 road games per year. USC will finally own West Coast recruiting. USC will finally get daytime and primetime East Coast game exposure. USC will definitely need to step up their game from the Helton years to compete … which they seem to be doing.

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    1. I think that for many of the athletic programs this will be a real challenge, but for football, not so much. We will have maybe 2-3 games in brutal weather per year, but we already might have had 2 games in brutal weather against Utah, Colorado or even Washington State. Utah and Colorado always had a big advantage of altitude acclimation for home games.

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  30. Wouldn’t be surprised if UCLA fired Chip Kelly tomorrow. Martin Jarmond: “I came to the realization that Chip Kelly has become a mediocre coach and insufficient to compete in the Big Ten.”

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  31. I watched a lot of people defend SuckiffinHeltonHarrell for fifteen years but this is beyond even what the Sunniest of Sunshine Pumpers can delude themselves about. It is what it is. I actually blame the Sunshine Pumpers partly- they are enablers.

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