What does adding UCLA and USC mean for Big Ten volleyball?

For the rest of the summer, here at B5Q, we’ll look at how future additions of UCLA and USC will affect other sports in the Big Ten other than football. First, Bremen talks about California volleyball!

If you have lived under rocks for the past few weeks, the college athletics world has been completely shaken and a new world order is coming to sports. Yes, college players can now pay for names, images, and * tap ear microphones *. I’m sorry to hear that it was a big shake last year.

No, the college track and field map looks different as Big Ten adds two schools from California to the USC conference. UCLA In 2024.

This move is clearly made geographically meaningless, but to make a fortune for a particular LA-based media group that covers Big Ten and Big Ten (what a coincidence!), It’s It was entirely based on the football sport, without much consideration of what would happen to the other sport that was clearly a move.

Having covered the beats of women’s volleyball in the past, we’ll make a hypothesis by looking at what this move can do for Big Ten Volleyball and its programs, especially the Defending Conference and National Champions. Wisconsin Badgers..

Competition is even fiercer

With the addition of USC and UCLA, Big Ten wins two traditional powerhouses for women’s volleyball and offers more sports blue blood for the conference season.

USC won the NCAA-sponsored first Women’s Volleyball Championship in 1981. The Trojan then won his second title in 2002 and repeated in 2003, beating Florida 3-1 during the season to be undefeated 35-0. The USC returned to the Final Four in 2004, upsetting Nebraska, who was number one at the time, before losing to Minnesota. Troy women also returned to the Final Four in 2007, 2010 and 2011.

Meanwhile, Bruins was the first national title game in 1981 to be a Trojan horse opponent, winning four national titles (1984, 1990, 1991, 2011). UCLA has created 11 final fours in its renowned history.

The USC has been a bit depressed lately and was disappointed last season at 15-15, but UCLA entered the NCAA tournament with a record of 25-6 before losing to Wisconsin. Putting these historic and successful programs into the already loaded Big Ten will undoubtedly add to the competition.

Scheduling … not so terrible

Most non-soccer teams face a much tougher travel experience (thinking of JJ’s college football, which often plays weekday night games in two different cities), but on most women’s volleyball schedules. If set together, the addition of the west coast.

Obviously, school costs will increase significantly, such as: RutgersFor those who need to travel nationwide to Los Angeles for road games with Trojans and Bruins, most volleyball schedules are built around weekend tournaments, with two games played in a few days. increase.

This means Midwest teams can swing LA road trips without having to go to another city. Badgers were able to play Bruins at Pauly on Friday and fight Trojan horses at Galen Center on Saturday.

Photo by Jeff Golden / Getty Images

To be honest, the teams that face the most difficulties in traveling are schools in LA, but volleyball teams often travel a long way for non-conference tournaments anyway. For example, last year, UCLA held weekend tournaments in Logan, Utah and Honolulu, Hawaii, where they played three games.

Players may be adding more mileage and jet lag, but that’s not as unusual as it is with other sports programs.

Expansion of adoption footprint

Just as Wisconsin chats and yells on Twitter about being a volleyball school, the West Coast has owned college volleyball for most of the history of NCAA-sponsored tournaments.

Of the 12 schools that won the Indoor Women’s Volleyball Championship, five are from California, and as mentioned earlier, Big Ten is currently adding two. Moreover, as you can imagine, UCLA and USC dominated the side of beach volleyball.

California has a lot of volleyball talent and some of the top prep players trying to play in the toughest competition, which could mean more players in the Midwest recruitment from the Golden State. ..

Justin Tafoya via Getty Images / NCAA Photographed

Nebraska has a strong tradition of rostering the indigenous peoples of California.Wisconsin already Charlie Fuerbringer has a commitment in the 2024 class for the top domestic settersI’m from Southern California. Now she can have the privilege of playing some conference games in her home state, in addition to playing for the best of the country.

Larger countries such as Pennsylvania State University, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have already adopted it nationally (and internationally), but this is from the West Coast by other middle-class schools such as Indiana, Iowa, and the Northwest. This means that you can add higher quality players. It should also benefit the overall level of competition.

Overall verdict

This decision was made for football and dollar sign reasons, but this should be a great move to further boost the best volleyball conferences. In particular, the Pac-12, which has traditionally dominated sports, probably undermines its closest rivals to the title.

This is exciting news for Wisconsin volleyball fans. Kill college athletics (Dan Drew, why are you Downer?)