Super League Plan Reignites UCLA/USC Football Rivalries by Reconstituting PAC-10

NCAA Basketball: PAC 10 Media Day
Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Over the past two weeks, the sports world has been abuzz with debates over the proposed “Super League,” a radical new vision for college football put forth by one group of stakeholders.

The sports business outlet, Sportico, recently come into possession of a “confidential” proposal that was distributed by the group behind the Super League concept in mid-February. This document reveals several new details, including plans to share broadcast revenue with players, a proposed 40-game spring football “festival,” and an initial plan to organize the 70-team league into seven geographically aligned leagues.

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UCLA/USC Football Thrown Back Into Pac-10

A cursory glance at the ‘West League’ should remind all of the PAC-12. It regroups the now-dissolved conference that became the PAC-12 in 2011 with the addition of two teams, Colorado and Utah. They will join the poorly named “Plains League.”

This proposal also bifurcates USC and UCLA football’s current conference, the Big 10. This plan takes its 18 schools and sends them to four different leagues

The most beneficial thing the proposal reinstates is the great rivalries among the West Coast schools. Of course, the greatest rivalry remained intact as UCLA and USC football will be played every year in their new conference. But here they would ensure they would play Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, and Cal every year.

Regional rivalries are the backbone of college football and college sports in general. Preserving them and in this case reviving them is the best thing college sports can do to preserve its place at the heart of the American sports landscape. It is what differentiates itself from the professional game writ large.

NCAA Football: USC Football at UCLA
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports