BREAKUP OF AMERICA: THE BIG (TEN) RISES TO THE TOP OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

With a commissioner from baseball and a dismissive of the Pac-12, the league collects Oregon and Washington to a 2024 plan with USC and UCLA and posits this: The SEC won’t win more championships

     What will happen in one year is 11 hours of football, from Saturday morning until Saturday night, that will banish almost everything else on TV. The SEC will have ESPN, and they’ll make the most of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and LSU about four times a year. But three of the four schools out west in the Big Ten — let’s get rid of the name, to just Big Bounce America — will make the schools in the inner regions better.

     Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State.

     All in the final seven.

     Followed by Washington, USC, Oregon.

     All in the final 15.

     And at long last, a country that needed a logger’s retreat for college football now has a lead. The Big Whatever is the biggest league in the nation, and even if Florida State and Clemson want to join the SEC, that isn’t happening unless there’s a 20-year contract giving grants-of-rights to conference rivals before 2036. The SEC has 16 teams, with Texas and Oklahoma joining next season for good. But the Big Whatever has 18 teams, with Oregon and Washington joined by USC and UCLA next year, and if you really think the SEC is worth hanging onto, consider the list of competitors — six more into the mid-30s, leaving 12 total — who will make these games more than credible.

     So what we have here is another monster, the rousing proclivity of a sport that continues to shine merrily as the entertainment business strikes in Hollywood. The Pac-12 is about gone, after 108 seasons of trying, and the TV networks have gathered what’s left and put them inside new alliances. You couldn’t tell if UCLA coach Chip Kelly, who sounds thrilled when he could be on the street again, is happy to be in a proper place. “Do I like the NFL where there’s NFC West, NFC North, NFC South, where it’s the same thing and we all get together,” he said, half-kidding. “But I think there should be one conference in all of college football and just break it up like they do in the professional ranks. … That makes the most sense. There’s your travel question, there’s all those other questions.”

     What does that mean? Who knows? Basketball can continue to go away in college, with five of the seven top picks in the 2023 NBA Draft bound to other leagues or ignite or elite leagues. It’s just another sport to watch now, not for anywhere near its previous haul. “It is now official football has taken over the country,” said St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who is 70. “The leagues will now decide what's permissible (and) what's not. All sports will be traveling 4-5 hours with many delays.”

     Football? Someone at Northwestern will decide whether it’s worth continuing to rebuild again, with a spate of racial issues in a hazing crisis, while knowing it will be more difficult than ever. Might Notre Dame finally realize it has 100 years of junkets to start selling in a league?

     “We are excited to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference,” said new commissioner Tony Petitti, who stuck with the Big Ten, for now. “We look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the universities, administrators and staff, student-athletes, coaches and fans. Both institutions feature a combination of academic and athletic excellence that will prove a great fit for our future.”

     Then there’s Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who couldn’t help but weigh in on Oregon finally jumping ship — a week after his team joined the Big 12, which will be helped by Arizona State and Utah joining forces. “All of this is about money,” Sanders said. “You know that. It’s about the bag. Everybody’s chasing the bag. Then you get mad at the players when they chase it. How is that? How do the grownups get mad at the players for chasing it when the colleges are chasing it?”

     Because the adults rule the roost. “Yeah, the same teams that were talking about us, right?” he said with a laugh and a smile. “Lord, that was good.” Said USC coach Lincoln Riley, who said he had no doubt: “We came here to win national championships. You’re competing against everybody. So in my mind, nothing has changed. It doesn’t matter what conference you’re in. most schools in the country are going to recruit in Southern California. There’s a lot of good players out here. Very confident in our brand. Very confident in our approach. Our goals are completely unaffected by anything today.”

     No one was more on point than ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who said: “Yeah, it feels a lot sleazier. The Oklahoma and Texas was gobsmacking. Same for SC and UCLA. ... This feels like we’re sitting here on Wall Street and you’ve got some hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs trying to decide what the point of this portfolio is. None of this makes any sense, but what has made much sense in college athletics for a long time?”

     Oh, but there’s more. “The stability and exposure of joining the Big Ten is of great benefit to the University of Oregon, and we are grateful to the presidents and chancellors for accepting our application to join the conference," Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said in a statement. "We look forward to the opportunity for our student-athletes to compete in this conference, which includes many of the best programs in the nation in every sport.”

     Said Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen: “We have tremendous respect and gratitude for the Pac-12, its treasured history and traditions. At the same time, the college athletics landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. The Big Ten's history of athletic and academic success and long-term stability best positions our teams for success, and we are energized at the opportunity to compete at the highest level against some of the best programs in the country.”

     There are 18 schools in the Big Ten. That will be enough, for now. The SEC will be second, and the ACC and Big 12 will be way back there. Until then, Big Bounce America can play its title game in …

     Pasadena. Who’s stopping them?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.