Game Day: UCLA’s move to Big Ten gets an improvement

Editor’s note: This is the Thursday, December 14, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. UCLA’s move – with USC – from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten has been approved by the University of California Board of Regents in a way that should make the conference switch more palatable to critics.

In other news:

• The Dodgers and Noah Syndergaard agreed to a one-year contract for the former All-Star to join the starting rotation.
• The Clippers won their third game in a row after trailing the Timberwolves at halftime.
• Columnist Mirjam Swanson says the Lakers’ season isn’t over if only the front office would act to strengthen their stars’ supporting cast.
• Reese Dixon-Waters, Tre Waters and Drew Peterson led USC past Long Beach State in men’s basketball.
• Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa might be nearing his return from a September injury.
• France and Kylian Mbappe beat Morocco to set up a World Cup final against Argentina and Lionel Messi.
• Last but not least, J.P. Hoornstra stitched together a fascinating column about MLB’s lack of transparency amid a report that it used three different kinds of baseballs last season, and they weren’t distributed randomly.

Back to the UCLA-USC news.

In a meeting on the Westwood campus yesterday, the UC regents voted 11-5 to clear the way for most Bruin teams to join the Big Ten in what is expected to be a very lucrative move.

The approval removes practically any doubt that the change will happen starting in the 2024-25 academic year and will hang over everything else happening in Bruin athletics in the meantime. Last night the 16th-ranked UCLA men’s basketball team demolished No. 20 Maryland in College Park, and you wondered if the Terrapins’ fellow Big Ten members shuddered. Tonight the 10th-ranked UCLA and unbeaten USC women’s basketball teams play at the Galen Center in their Pac-12 season opener, and you muse that they won’t hear that sunny phrase much longer.

As Jon Wilner, who broke the story of the L.A. schools’ proposed move in June, and Michael Nowels report in today’s papers, the regents’ long-awaited rubber stamp came with conditions.

UCLA will be required to subsidize Cal athletics to help offset the damage that the departure will do to the UC system’s remaining Pac-12 school, the annual subsidy to be set somewhere between $2 million and $10 million after the next Pac-12 media rights deal is announced.

Wilner and Nowels write: “The ruling also requires UCLA to mitigate travel impacts and increase its student-athlete support budgets for academics, mental health and nutrition.”

The requirements after “also” sound more important, in justifying the move, than the part about Cal.

Jim Alexander’s column today has details of the $9 million or more in “mitigation measures” meant to help athletes who will have to travel to events in Big Ten Country – which now means everywhere from the Great Lakes region to, well, Maryland. They include more tutoring and stipends to pay for learning technology; on-campus breakfast and lunch for athletes, and more nutritious meals on the road; and “additional mental health service providers for student-athletes and education programs around stress management, sleep, disordered eating, and other conditions.”

If you don’t think these measures are needed, read an op-ed from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times by Tyrone C. Howard, a professor of education and director of the Black Male Institute at UCLA.

“The increased revenue that (UCLA and USC) stand to gain in shifting to the Big Ten is an opportunity for athletic departments to radically rethink how to support student athletes,” Howard writes.

The revenue boost should help smaller sports programs at UCLA that faced uncertain futures amid the athletic department’s more than $100 million deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.

The move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten will remain hard to love for many of us who know only UCLA’s and USC’s many rivalries with West Coast schools and can’t imagine having the same excitement about games against midwestern and eastern opponents.

But concern about the move’s inconvenience for athletes has been a big part of resistance to it, and the requirements imposed on UCLA by the UC regents can go a long way toward easing that burden and even improving athletes’ lives.

As with everything else about the change ahead, it will be up to the people running UCLA and USC to make sure that it happens with athletes facing as little bother and enjoyingas much benefit as possible.

TODAY

• Clippers host the struggling Suns (7:30 p.m., BSSC), who hope to get Devin Booker back.
• Kings visit Boston (4 p.m., BSW), which has the NHL’s best record. Kings update.
• Ducks play at Montreal (4 p.m., BSSC). They’re 0-8 on the road vs. the East. Ducks update.
• USC (9-0) is home vs. UCLA (9-1, No. 10) in women’s basketball (7 p.m., Pac12LA).

NEXT QUESTION

Are you happy that UCLA’s move – with USC – from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten in 2024 was approved yesterday by the UC regents? Respond by email (KModesti@scng.com) or on Twitter (@KevinModesti).

280 CHARACTERS

“UCLA has been in the Big Ten for (checks watch) less than three hours, and they already own this conference.” – Sam Connon (@SamConnon), publisher of All Bruins on FanNation/Sports Illustrated, as the UCLA men’s basketball team built a 38-point lead against Big Ten member Maryland yesterday.

1,000 WORDS

All-out: Long Beach State forward Lassina Traore (23) and USC guard Drew Peterson scramble for a loose ball during last night’s game at Galen Center. Photo is by Keith Birmingham of the Pasadena Star-News and SCNG.

LET’S TALK

Thanks for reading the newsletter. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at KModesti@scng.com and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.