Urban Meyer’s take on Big Ten realignment makes next to no sense

Urban Meyer’s take on the Big Ten adding USC and UCLA is as bad as you would expect it to be.

With the Big Ten getting USC and UCLA in two academic years, of course, the Big Ten Network would ask former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer what he thinks about the most shocking wave of college athletics realignment to date.

Meyer spoke with Dave Revsine of the Big Ten Network on Thursday night about the earth-shattering realignment news that just transpired. Outside of the Jacksonville mess, Meyer has had overwhelming success everywhere he has coached. Unfortunately, him finding a way to justify the Big Ten killing the Pac-12 and West Coast football outside of Los Angeles is very difficult to watch.

Here is Meyer telling Revsine this wave of college realignment actually makes some sense to him.

"“I’ve seen conference realignment like we all have over the years.” said Meyer to Revsine. “To be quite honest with you, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Where this school is gonna jump to this conference where there’s not really a rivalry there, there’s not a foundation for recruiting, but this one makes sense to me. I heard about this one a while back. And I was like, ‘Wow!’ I started scratching my head. ‘Can they really do this?'”"

Meyer followed by saying there are “natural rivalries” playing on opposite sides of the country…

"“There are some great, great football players in Los Angeles that when USC and UCLA are down a little, you can go cherrypick them a little bit,” continued Meyer. “But now, you’re going to see the floodgates open up, in my eyes. Because those families are not going to be able to watch their sons play. It makes a lot of sense to me. Academically, reputation and there are natural rivalries between USC, UCLA and the Big Ten Conference.”"

This is about three things, and really only one thing: Football, academics and above all else, money.

Urban Meyer’s take on Big Ten adding USC and UCLA is just patently absurd

Look. If you want to say USC and UCLA bolting for the Big Ten in two years is a good thing, it better be about academics, football and money, and that is it. Both USC and UCLA are AAU members, which is a big reason why the Big Ten extended bids to them. The Big Ten is a solid second to the SEC in terms of football viability, but has the richest boosters and biggest nation-wide fan bases.

So if you want to say all three of those things are reasons to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten, then go right ahead. This is truly an indictment Larry Scott’s tenure as the Pac-12 commissioner. When you do not prioritize football and keep on saying, “just wait until 2024” for the media rights to open up again, you reap what you sow. As far as Meyer is concerned, where do we even begin?

The Rose Bowl and West Coast football as we know it are dead, just like the feckless alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12. Handshake agreements are meaningless when no contract has been drawn up. All this realignment does is allow the second biggest media market in the nation to be poached for top-flight talent and to be further exploited in the media rights game.

Rutgers is as close to Iceland as it is to Los Angeles…

The Scarlet Knights vs. the Bruins is going to be every bit as compelling of a natural rivalry as the when the Terrapins take on the Trojans. While USC playing in The Horseshoe is television gold, what about the Trojans playing Illinois or Purdue in the snow? I cannot wait to spend an entire paycheck so I can go to Piscataway, New Jersey to watch the Bruins play ball on a Friday night…

Look. We just need to accept that this is happening and try to make sense of it all. However, do not try to say adding two schools from California makes more sense than the SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma. This is on par with the Big 12 adding West Virginia and UCF. Have the Mountaineers thrived since leaving the old Big East behind? They should be in the ACC and everybody knows it!

Ultimately, all this does is allow a way for Meyer to get back into coaching. If he can resurface at a Big Ten school in a few years and be able to poach top-tier talent out of Los Angeles because it is okay because USC and UCLA play in the Big Ten, then he will do it. If the Big Ten is going to add USC and UCLA, it needs to add even more teams to avoid them being so geographically isolated.

There are reasons to justify adding USC and UCLA, but rivalries and fertile recruiting beds ain’t it.

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