WKU Hilltoppers: Will WKU Feel the Effects of UCLA and USC's move to the Big Ten?

Less than a year after the Texas/Oklahoma to the SEC rumblings were reported, another round of conference realignment is upon us. Will these ramifications be felt by WKU, too?

Last Thursday, an absolute bombshell dropped seemingly out of nowhere when Pac-12 reporter Jon Wilner tweeted that he had been hearing from sources that UCLA and USC were having talks about joining the Big Ten.

Jon Wilner @wilnerhotline

Source: USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024. Move *has not been finalized* at the highest levels of power.

Less than six-hours later, it was official, sparking the next round of conference re-alignment less than a year removed from the first round, with the news of Texas and Oklahoma bolting from the Big 12 to the SEC.

The Towel Rack @TheTowelRackWKU

Texas/OU ultimately led to the AAC/SBC raid from C-USA. USC/UCLA might not be as direct, but buckle up because #WKU could be impacted *somehow* in this

Jon Wilner @wilnerhotline

Source: USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024. Move *has not been finalized* at the highest levels of power.

While some (myself included) may have been caught off-guard in just how active WKU was in the middle of the realignment talk last year, this year we are far more prepared, understanding the potential for ramifications to trickle down all the way into Conference USA yet again.

The way I see it, there are two major scenarios in play - one potentially leads to WKU getting swept up in realignment, the other…not so much.

If the Pac-12 becomes an aggressor, the Tops very well could have a new conference home sooner rather than later.

WKU fans should hope the Pac-12 plays offense, not defense, and fast if they’re wanting a fast-track to become a realignment candidate once again.

In the immediate aftermath of the USC/UCLA news breaking, it was believed the Pac-12 would be ripped piece-by-piece by other, more aggressive conferences, but that seems to have cooled off a bit now as the conference released a statement Friday saying they were exploring expansion candidates.

Pac-12 Conference @pac12

Before you ask, no: I am not suggesting Western Kentucky is a target on the Pac-12’s big board.

What I am suggesting, though, is that the Hilltoppers would be in line to replace a team secondarily affected by the Pac-12’s expansion. A scenario looks something like this:

• The Pac-12 invites Oklahoma State and Kansas to replace the outgoing California schools.

• The Big 12, in turn, dips back into the American Athletic Conference pool and elevates Memphis and SMU to Power 5 status.

• The AAC, now officially out of worthy big-market G5 programs in their footprint (no offense, FIU) extends an invitation to the Hilltoppers and Louisiana Tech to join their ranks.

Boom, there you have it. USC and UCLA’s leaving is all of a sudden not only affecting WKU, but is helping WKU in some sense.

Now, of course, this is all hypothetical. If this Athletic expansion candidate article is to be believed, only four schools are mentioned that would, most likely, lead to a potential WKU impact in some way (two of which - Houston and SMU - would be more direct, as the Tops would be potential direct replacements for outgoing AAC members).

A lot is unknown in this scenario, but it’s easily the best-case for the Hilltoppers.

If the Pac-12 is seen as being vulnerable, by remaining members and other conferences, WKU might not have a path out of C-USA.

This is the doomsday scenario if you’re a Hilltopper fan wanting a near-immediate escape route out of Conference USA.

This is the scenario that, if you tuned into any sort of coverage for in the immediate aftermath of the Wilner tweet, you heard a million and one variations of.

This is the scenario that has Oregon and Washington joining the southern California schools in the Big Ten. This is the scenario that has the Arizona schools joining the Big 12.

Essentially, this is the scenario that kills the Pac-12, leaving us with a Power 4 (what would be the official first step into the long-feared scenario of two Super Conferences).

In this scenario, it’s hard to see WKU leaving C-USA as a direct response to the USC/UCLA move. This is a purely “the rich get richer” scenario, sending the brand-name Pac-12 schools to the conferences of their choosing and potentially leaving some current Pac-12 schools in the dust.

At this point you probably have two questions: Which scenario is more likely and what is the timeline for these decisions to come down?

These are the two most natural questions to have at this point, but unfortunately there isn’t much of a clear answer for either.

Here’s what is, in my mind, clear at this time: More Pac-12 schools will depart the conference and a lot can, and will, happen between now and 2024.

The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported that “There’s not a huge rush” for the Big Ten to add and officially name more new conference members. This is true: With 2024 as the timeline for USC/UCLA’s entrance, there’s plenty of time to line up however many more members to enter with them, whether that’s pulling from Oregon and Washington, getting Notre Dame to renege on football independence and the ACC or any other moves the conference may have up its sleeve.

Is it possible the Pac-12 attempts to replenish the well? Yes. Is it possible it does that by going with, say, San Diego St. and Boise St., making all of this moot and keeping WKU in C-USA? Yes.

But, it’s just as plausible a situation I laid out above happens, too.

It’s also possible the Big Ten continues to pluck off the brand names of the Pac-12 while the Pac-12 continues to expand to replace those members, again leaving the door open for WKU to have a new home.

The possibilities are seemingly endless at this point - at the very least, there are too many to list all of the possibilities in this story. Each paragraph I write leads me to two or three new ideas I hadn’t thought of before. We are less than a week into this new reality so a lot is still to shake out.

If there are two things I’d advise as we continue to move forward, it’s patience and more patience. We aren’t getting an announcement tomorrow that WKU is bound for a new home. We probably aren’t even getting rumor tweets that involve WKU specifically. That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible in six, 12 or 18 months time.

As we learned last fall, WKU controls very little in this process. But, what it can control, it must do and do defiantly this time around. In this fast-approaching new world of college football, being Division 1 might not mean then what it does now, but it’ll still mean something and the Hilltoppers cannot let that categorization pass them by.

We aren’t yet at a crisis point - this is more of an exercise in possibilities - but all options must be starting to be looked at and I hope the powers at be are doing so now before it’s too late.