The UC Board of Regents voted 11-5 Wednesday to allow UCLA to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten after next academic year, but reserved the right to later impose a subsidy upon the Bruins.
The subsidy issue will be determined after the Pac-12 finalizes its coming media rights deal and the board vote stipulated that the subsidy would be between $2 million and $10 million.
The decision, rendered in a meeting on UCLA’s campus, comes after months of deliberation by the regents following the bombshell June 30 news, broken by the Pac-12 Hotline, that UCLA and USC planned to depart from the only conference either has ever known.
In a statement, UCLA athletics director Martin Jarmond thanked the Board of Regents for “thoughtful engagement” and said UCLA has “always been guided by what is best for our 25 teams and more than 700 student-athletes, and the Big Ten offers exciting new competitive opportunities on a bigger national media platform.”
The Pac-12, when asked for a statement, said it “has been and remains incredibly bullish on the future success and growth of our Conference.”
The regents established in August that they had the right to overturn UCLA’s move, putting into question whether the Bruins would be allowed to leave the Pac-12, and their sister school in Berkeley, following the 2024 academic year.
“For this particular matter, the regents could say ‘We want to act and therefore we do not want the (UC) president or the (campus) chancellors to act in this area,’ and simply assert that,” regents general counsel Charlie Robinson said.
But a full reversal of UCLA’s move was always the most extreme measure, and one that would cost a fair bit of political capital.
A less punitive option was to require the Bruins to subsidize the Bears, who are financially harmed, along with the other Pac-12 universities, by the departure of the Los Angeles schools. The original action item brought into open session would have capped the subsidy at $5 million, but it was amended during discussion.
The ruling also requires UCLA to mitigate travel impacts and increase its student-athlete support budgets for academics, mental health and nutrition.
Projections for the conference’s upcoming media rights agreement range from $30 million to $38 million per school per year, and Hotline sources say the valuation would likely increase 10 percent or more if the Bruins were to stay.
Some critics of the move, including those on the governing board, have asked whether the travel associated with joining a conference based in the Midwest would be so expensive and detrimental to the student-athletes that the financial windfall — annual media revenue is expected to fall in the $62.5 million to $70 million range — may not be worth that price.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appoints and oversees the Board of Regents, said he was blindsided by the move when news broke June 30.
“Is it a good idea? Did we discuss the merits or demerits? I’m not aware that anyone did,” Newsom told Fox 11 Los Angeles in July. “So it was done in isolation. It was done without any regental oversight or support.”
The Board was initially expected to determine UCLA’s fate during a November meeting in San Francisco but instead set a meeting one month later to allow for more deliberation.
In the second-to-last week of the regular season, there are a handful of games that will help shape conference championship matchups and potential postseason bowl games. No. 7 USC vs. No. 16 UCLA highlights this week’s top-10 slate.
