For the second summer in a row, the college sports world has been stunned by major conference realignment news. Both UCLA and USC announced they will be departing the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten, who voted the California schools into the league to begin competition in the 2024-25 school year. This mimics last year’s development that saw Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 for the SEC, once again shifting the dynamics of the college sports landscape.
Although gymnastics had no impact on the decision, the decision will impact gymnastics as one of the all-time winningest programs, UCLA, is at the center of it. A blueblood on the move carries considerable implications for both the conference it’s departing and the conference it’s joining, so we had our Big Ten editor Emily Minehart and Pac-12 editor Brandis Heffner breakdown what the change means for the sport.
What impact has UCLA had on Pac-12 gymnastics?
In terms of actual gymnastics, whether it was the pre-expansion Pac-10 or the post-expansion Pac-12, the Bruins will leave the conference having been a dominant force from start to finish. After the conference began sponsoring the sport in 1987, UCLA won the first four championships and never looked back, picking up 15 more titles in the years since. The Bruins’ supremacy doesn’t end there — as winning more than half of a conference’s titles would suggest — sitting third all-time amongst gymnastics programs in NCAA history with seven championships. UCLA gymnastics has certainly done its part in helping earn the Pac-12’s nickname, the “Conference of Champions.”
But, UCLA gymnastics’ reach goes far beyond winning, with its dominating social presence gifting the conference irreplaceable exposure. Having already established a winning culture on the competition floor, the Bruins became leaders in the sport in another sense after jumping on the social media bandwagon in the mid 2010s. Their spirited, engaging choreography and music on floor translated well to a thriving viral video culture, leading to the Bruins totaling over one million social media followers to date. For reference, LSU sits at second overall with around 362,000 followers and the Pac-12’s new leader is Utah with roughly 175,000 — good for sixth in the NCAA.
It’s going to be tough to replace the actual gymnastics the Bruins brought to the Pac-12, but it’s going to be near impossible to replace the eyeballs they brought to the conference.
How do the Bruins compare to current Big Ten competitors?
UCLA gymnastics has the potential to completely alter the ethos of the sport in the Big Ten. The Bruins are a championship pedigree team, something only Michigan can claim in the rest of the conference. Minnesota and Michigan State had 2022 seasons on par with UCLA, and that group of four could be very competitive when the Bruins join the conference in 2025. Ohio State has been on an upswing and should join that conversation as well. Even in this elite group, the Bruins stand out in terms of name-recognition. The Big Ten just hasn’t historically pulled the elites that head to UCLA.
The Bruins also stand apart from the pack for all of the non-gymnastics pieces. UCLA goes viral regularly, is the most-followed NCAA gymnastics team on social media and is renowned for its spectacular floor routines. The Bruins put on a show fitting their setting in Westwood. Big Ten teams have been improving their social media presence over the past few years, and teams like Ohio State and Michigan are leaning into the spectacle. Nadalie Walsh at Illinois has spoken about elevating Illini gymnastics and creating that big-time atmosphere. It seems like a goal for most of the conference, but that’s hard to do with lower attendance numbers.
UCLA had 22,785 fans attend meets in Pauley in 2022, per Road to Nationals. In the Big Ten only Michigan tops that, by about two thousand, while Minnesota and Ohio State also had respectable attendance totals. The rest of the conference lags pretty far behind. UCLA’s great social presence means it has fans nationwide, so wherever the Bruins go, their fans show up. Adding UCLA to the Big Ten slate of meets should help drive attendance numbers across the conference.
The Big Ten season format is one big question mark. Currently, each team sees all other nine teams in either a regular season dual or at the Big Five meets. Throwing an 11th team into the mix is messy and really throws a wrench in the whole convoluted process. Let’s just hope we don’t see a mega-meet, seven-team afternoon session of the conference championship…
Where does this leave the Pac-12?
Even with UCLA’s back-to-back nationals misses and recent title drought, the competitiveness of the Pac-12 will take a hit upon its departure. The Bruins not only own the conference’s most recent NCAA title from 2018, but they’re the only program to win an NCAA championship as a Pac-12 member, with current constituent Utah’s nine titles inherited from its pre-Pac days and no other school having ever finished on top. Even with the resurgence of Arizona State and rise of California the past few years, the Pac-12’s nationals participants have dwindled, nabbing three qualifiers in 2019 (when the format changed from 12 to eight teams) to just one in 2022. The optimism surrounding UCLA’s fresh coaching staff and highly ranked recruiting class only adds salt to the wound.
Barring any more alterations to the Pac-12, the pressure is going to be on the rest of the conference to stay relevant. The Utes are expected to be the face of the conference moving forward as expected NCAA championship contenders over the next few years, but there’s no program who can step into UCLA’s void and be a second guaranteed championship qualifier. That’s concerning when the Big Ten will be fighting for three participants once the Bruins arrive and the SEC will push for five after Oklahoma joins. Last year’s four-way tie for regular season Pac-12 champion and California toying the nationals qualification line the past few years is an indication that the conference is on an upswing overall and will remain competitive internally, but there’s still a gap between Utah and the rest.
Big picture: Expect Pac-12 allegiance to be fluid the next few years as football money continues to spark realignment. Conference leaders have stayed relatively quiet while the situation is still unfolding, but there are many avenues to explore with all trends pointing toward more movement. The Arizona schools and Utah are names being tossed around by the Big 12, which could lead to an eventual dissolution of the Pac-12, or the conference could opt for exponential expansion or a major merger to get back on the same level as the Big Ten and SEC.
What’s next for the Big Ten?
By most accounts, the Big Ten isn’t done yet. Oregon and Washington are the next rumored targets. The conference traditionally values universities part of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a designation indicating high academic rigor. Even in this expansion-minded climate, it seems likely that the conference will maintain that standard as a means of setting itself apart.
If we truly are moving toward two nationwide mega-conferences (the SEC and Big Ten), we could end up with a situation in which one dominates football nationally and the other men’s basketball. The Big Ten has traditionally been strong in basketball and has recently been leaning into its image as a basketball conference. BTN already tweeted statistics about UCLA’s basketball tradition, including its championship pedigree and John Wooden’s legacy. Football will always be king in this money- and television deal-driven environment, but basketball is a close second. The history and tradition around football in the SEC is hard to match, even with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in the Big Ten’s ranks. Basketball, though, is where the conference can plant its stake. If that is the long-term plan, schools like North Carolina, Duke and Kansas could be on the table—they’re all AAU institutions.
This is about money. Ultimately, the conference will do whatever it can to add to its coffers. Unfortunately, it’s not going to make moves that are best for student-athletes or in the best interests of non-revenue sports. That’s the reality. As far as gymnastics is concerned, the looming future of these two mega-conferences might mean teams coming into the SEC or Big Ten without gymnastics teams will be inspired to add them when they see how much support exists. We can only hope!
We Need to Talk about BTN.
The elephant in the room. BTN does not hold a candle to the SEC Network. It has been Fox (which owns BTN) and ESPN (which owns SECN) driving a lot of these moves behind the scenes. One has to hope that part of the roadmap for the Big Ten and Fox is to elevate and expand BTN coverage. For one, BTN isn’t accessible outside of markets near Big Ten teams. Given that most Big Ten institutions are in the middle of cornfields (Brandis and Emily are both Big Ten alumni and can say it), access is spotty at best. Hopefully, the new nationwide nature of the conference and adding the LA market will mean widely expanded availability.
As for gymnastics, Olivia Karas and Dean Linke have done a lot to elevate coverage in a very short time. That said, the production value is still just not up to par. One has to hope that BTN executives are paying attention to the audiences that Friday Night Heights and ESPN meets pull and will invest in revamping gymnastics productions. This jockeying between Fox and ESPN also implies that we may see fewer Big Ten teams (now including UCLA) on national ESPN properties. That would be unfortunate but seems like a possibility. Fox has yet to fully buy in to gymnastics like ESPN has, so hopefully adding the most popular team in the sport will inspire change.
READ THIS NEXT: UCLA to Join Big Ten Starting With 2025 Season
Article by Emily Minehart and Brandis Heffner
Like what you see? Consider donating to support our efforts throughout the year! [wpedon id=”13158″]
One comment