Andy Katz reveals how USC, UCLA moving to Big Ten effects NCAA March Madness selection
Plenty of attention from USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten has been on its meaning for college football. The next step of that is realizing what it means for the rest of the collegiate sports, including men’s basketball. UCLA is one of the sport’s all-time great programs while USC has had some recent success in the last two decades. Meanwhile, the Big Ten is a basketball conference full of traditions and big time programs.
NCAA host and FOX Sports’ Andy Katz says this move is a big one for the Big Ten. Additionally, he believes this will lead to an extensive majority of the conference being in the NCAA Tournament.
“You’ve got history, tradition, and a concentration of bids. 16 schools adding two traditional powers. What does that mean?,” said Katz. “That means you could be looking at years where three fourths of the Big Ten could be in the NCAA Tournament.”
That kind of bid share in the NCAA Tournament isn’t particularly uncommon these days. 8 of the 14 Big Ten teams made the field for the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Both UCLA and USC were amongst the field as well. This move just further settles the Big Ten where they can reasonably put nearly double digit teams in the field.
The Big Ten is the latest to join the super conference conversation. The familiar name remains with the SEC being their biggest competition in that area. Six of the SEC’s 14 teams along with future member Texas were selected in the field. Meanwhile, Katz says there is another super conference when you specifically talk about college basketball. He believes those three conferences could hold a major share of the NCAA Tournament field.
“The SEC is going to be at 16 with Oklahoma and Texas and they may do that as well,” Katz said. “The majority of the bids could end up coming from the Big Ten, the SEC, and the ACC with 15 members currently.”
This decision will be one that has real effects all over college sports. It may even lead more teams to join the massive conferences to where they own an even bigger percentage of the field. Regardless, what you can’t argue is the pedigree both the Bruins and Trojans will bring to the court in an already respected conference in the Big Ten.