From media rights to athlete representation: will all USC sports benefit from the move to the Big Ten?

It’s no secret that USC’s football program is excited for a fresh start in the Big Ten conference of college athletics in 2024. Between a storied history of Heisman winners, national championships and a massive pipeline to the NFL, this is a natural next step for the Trojans when it comes to competition and media representation. Athletes will get more exposure across the country, potentially better NIL deals, tougher competition and the chance to bring the Big Ten into the Los Angeles mediascape.

So football will benefit from this conference change. But what about sports with less skin in the game? Ones who have significantly less media coverage and representation?

Most of the skepticism about the move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten has come from the Pac-12 itself. Many college athletic organizations feel blindsided, left behind or disappointed, Annenberg Media reporting has revealed.

It was announced in June that USC and UCLA will move from the Pac-12 conference to the Big Ten conference in August of 2024, a decision with ripple effects reaching schools on both the East and West coasts. USC has roots in the Pac-12 dating back to 1922, and UCLA 1928. The crosstown rivals’ switch was prompted by the Pac-12′s lack of media coverage and resources, and the Big Ten’s partnership with Fox presented a promising opportunity for the schools to make a monetary upgrade.

The Big Ten’s media deal distributed $46.1 million to each college in the conference for the 2021 fiscal year, while the Pac-12 only distributed $19.8 million. A source familiar with the Pac-12′s current media rights deal and how it compares to the Big Ten provided some background.

“Pac-12 really botched its whole media situation back in 2012 thinking that this product was so desirable that people would pay for all these networks,” said the source, whom Annenberg Media provided anonymity to allow them to speak freely about the situation

The Pac-12 was unwilling to budge for a lower subscription rate with a different provider, which limited their options for streaming and services. Now streaming games are not available in many places, which forced the Pac-12 to move to a model based at the collegiate level rather than the conference-wide level, according to the source.

“The Pac-12 moved to this model where…it had enough money to produce X number of major events. So, football games, basketball games, but then it couldn’t do all of it. They couldn’t do volleyball matches, lacrosse games and whatnot,” the source said. “Then they offered schools infrastructure, like here’s a video recorder and some cameras and you’re going to produce it and then we’re just going to put our name on it.”

USC football is a predominant moneymaker when it comes to the intersection of athletics and media. But what about teams who haven’t experienced the same wealth of resources and media coverage? It’s time to dissect how this switch from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten will affect athletes and teams in sports that exist in football’s shadow.

Two of USC’s sports, water polo and beach volleyball, will be staying in their conferences, the MPSF and the Pac-12, respectively. The Big Ten will gain USC’s baseball, basketball, football, golf, swim and dive, tennis, track and field, volleyball, women’s lacrosse, women’s rowing, women’s cross country and women’s soccer teams.

Like any significant change in the world of collegiate athletics, there are positive and negative repercussions on these sports and their respective student-athletes. But do the benefits outweigh the costs?

The most obvious downside for student-athletes on the West coast is travel. Competing against teams who are between a four and six-hour flight from L.A. has consequences, for both student-athletes individually and the teams as a whole.

As a competitive and academically-rigorous university, USC values a well-rounded student body. Student-athletes are no exception. More time off campus and away from class is a juggling act – one that few student-athletes master in their time at USC.

“I was surprised and then I [was] a little bit annoyed because Big Ten schools are really far away,” said Chris O’Grady, a Division 1 USC swimmer and sophomore studying human biology. “Every time we have a dual meet now… we’re going to be flying four to six-hour flights every other week to go up there.”

When you account for both dual meets and tournament-style competition, the Big Ten’s travel schedule will be a huge adjustment for West coast-residing swimmers, and one that will come with a new set of challenges.

A cross-country flight already impacts one’s body in many ways: hydration, sleep, and sitting for extended periods of time. But those small inconveniences in a travel day are compounded when an athlete is simultaneously recovering from an injury.

“Let’s say you sprain your ankle on a Monday and you’re traveling on a Thursday for a Friday to Sunday game weekend; that ankle when you fly is going to swell up,” said Claudia Shevitz, a Division 1 USC lacrosse player and junior majoring in public relations. “That’s just an example that I’ve thought about and talked to my trainer about, [saying], ‘Oh, I wonder how that’s going to work.’”

Despite these negatives, the Big Ten move – if everything goes as promised – has the potential to benefit every student-athlete at USC, regardless of the sport they play.

Shevitz hopes the change will provide a new opportunity for lacrosse to grow as a sport and for her team to face higher competition.

“Overall, I think it’s going to be a great move, I think it’s going to really diversify the competition and just change things up,” said Shevitz. “I think that’s super important… I’m really excited.”

Shevitz added that the prominence of the sport in Los Angeles is similar to her hometown near Chicago.

“I feel like hotbeds for lacrosse are Connecticut, Long Island, Massachusetts. So growing up outside of Chicago definitely wasn’t the same as being in those hotbeds. And here at USC… it’s pretty much the same,” Shevitz said.

Shevitz has been working to expand lacrosse on the West coast during her time at USC by coaching youth club teams in the area with some of her teammates. But there is still more work to be done. One piece of this promotion puzzle could lie in USC’s new deal with the Big Ten.

“Typically, [games] would just be, if we were playing Stanford, on like the Pac-12 Network, but that’s super inaccessible to a lot of people… you have to pay for it, you have to make an account, it’s expensive and you don’t [want] to bother making a free trial and canceling it,” said Shevitz. “I think playing other teams, hopefully that would help with just having ESPN cover it, you know, [instead] of these super small, school networks.”

Lacrosse, along with the majority of other sports in the Pac-12, are almost impossible to stream without acquiring a laundry list of bills for mediocre coverage of an event. The Big Ten’s media deal with Fox will aim to bring that media coverage to a higher standard. As a swimmer, O’Grady feels the same lack of coverage, and is hopeful that the Big Ten will expand that representation – through media and therefore through more funding.

“Even if [USC swim doesn’t] get money directly, being in the Big Ten funds [the] athletic department. So, it’ll fund our weight room, it’ll fund [the] athletic dining hall,” O’Grady said. “If it doesn’t affect us directly, it still could be good for us.”

Despite USC swim leaving behind powerhouse schools like Cal and Stanford in the Pac-12, the true competition lies in individual times, something USC will have the opportunity to showcase during their NCAA postseason. O’Grady believes that this variation of competition is good for student-athletes and their sports as a whole.

“I definitely, on a personal level, [don’t] mind variation; I like change and everything,” said O’Grady. “I was definitely excited in that way. It’s something new, you know, we aren’t just competing against the same schools over and over again.”

Despite rising new challenges, the move to the Big Ten has the potential to bring in more opportunities for student-athletes at USC, making USC football not the only program benefiting from a move to the Big Ten Conference. Come 2024, however, USC Athletics should be held accountable for streaming equity across all sports – whether that’s under the lights at the Coliseum or on the pool deck at Uytengsu.

This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, October 5, 2022.