The true reason behind UCLA and USC's drastic shift to the Big Ten Conference is much simpler than the language administrators use in long-winded statements. The Big Ten's emergence as a financial titan began when the conference signed a six-year, $2.65-billion TV deal that began in 2017. At the time, the Pac-12 was outpacing the Big Ten in revenue thanks to a landmark TV deal under former commissioner Larry Scott. The Big Ten's 2017 media rights deal produced an average of $441.7 million in TV revenue a year. Splitting $1 billion of annual TV revenue among 16 Big Ten schools yields an average of $62.5 million per school.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 03, 2022 21:34 UTC