Regents Green Light UCLA to Big Ten

For how long?

Maybe UCLA can play Cal in a home & home every other year, kick their asses, and use the proceeds from the games as their yearly payment.

What a crock. Is the some kind of alimony payment for leaving?

It does because it can. Consider if California alone was its own country it would have a top 5 GDP in the world. California is a pain in my ass as an exporter but it does so because it can. 

Just don’t put a Dome over the Rose Bowl 

Ok State Cowboy is the one that creeps me out.

The reasoning behind the subsidy requirement is that this move will have an adverse financial impact on UC-Berkeley because it hurts the Pac-12, which will diminish the revenue that Cal receives from the Pac-12. The other UCs are not Pac-12 members so UCLA's move has no effect on them.

Having said that, Cal is currently saddled with a massive amount of debt from its financially disastrous stadium renovation (made worse by the fact that UC-Berkeley just plain sucks at managing money for some reason), so UCLA and USC's decision to leave the Pac-12 could not have come at a worse time for Cal. The subsidy is a bailout of sorts.

They’re in the same university system, the analogy would be that if UM was somehow in the same conference as UM-Dearborn and left, they’d pay a tax for it, and I understand that. It’s also not unique to California (which has two systems, UC and Cal State), Arizona has the same system (perhaps why ASU or U of A never seem to run roughshod over the over for too long), as does Nevada (which went so far as to split the law school and Med School between the two campuses).

Fewer road games.

It will never happen unless the TV money makes sense. Adding all those teams don't make sense from a TV revenue perspective. Essentially would just be recreating the old Big Ten and Pac-10 under one umbrella.

I would love that, but it ain't gonna happen. The B1G wants USC and UCLA for one reason and one reason only: the Los Angeles TV market, which is the second-largest TV market in the country. That's why they're willing to look past the geographic absurdity of this move. None of the other Pac-12 schools really move the needle in that regard. You could make a case for Washington and Washington State based on the Seattle market, but they're not nearly as big of a draw as USC and UCLA. Ditto for Arizona and Arizona State as well as Colorado and Utah. Forget about Oregon and Oregon State, Nike money notwithstanding. And no one in the Bay Area gives a shit about Cal or Stanford. Even back when Stanford was winning the Pac-12 and playing in BCS bowls, no one here even seemed to notice, let alone care. I can't even find their games on TV half the time.

Why would anyone want Cal? They are a second tier at best brand and Stanford is already in the area so there isn't a reason to take a second team from there that doesn't offer anything. It would be like bringing in Rutgers without the New York TV market. 

The UC regents are Berkeley-centric (and California politics is NorCal-centric).  Until that changes, further upping this subsidy will be on the table.

I imagine UCLA will sue before the first payment is made. Good lawyer subsidies there 

Don’t know if Boston College is part of AAU but I want Boston College for selfish reasons.  I would love a Michigan/Red Sox weekend or a Michigan/Red Wings weekend.

Seattle is a rather large TV market not in the Big Ten footprint.  UW/Oregon would be a nice package deal.

I really don't know why Stanford and Cal aren't already in discussions either.

+1 Not enough (any?) Emperor Joseph quotes around here. My personal favorite is “too many notes” used in my family for any chaotic or complicated situation. 

First we have to get them to leave the league to join a conference who is not part of the Blue  wall,  then we steal all the new MAC money they will have coming in! I like it too 

I’m thinking more like 5-7 million 

To be fair, I could understand why Bruin student athletes, especially at non-revenue sports (and UCLA's non-football/basketball teams are generally pretty good IIRC), might not be crazy about going to the Big Ten because it necessarily involves travel halfway across the country and with probably less cushy accommodations than football/basketball as opposed the playing vs the former Pac-12, which probably includes many of their friends.