What did ESPN analyst Bill Walton say about UCLA moving to the Big Ten?
The NBA Hall of Famer says UCLA’s attempted move to the Big Ten is “all about money,” and is not keeping the athletes’ best interest into account.
Bill Walton isn’t a fan of UCLA moving to the Big Ten.
The former UCLA basketball star and current TV basketball analyst said Tuesday that he hopes and dreams UCLA’s planned move to the Big Ten with USC will “be rescinded.”
“I am not in favor of UCLA’s recent announced decision to leave the Pac-12 Conference of Champions, nor their desire to join the Big Ten,” Walton told columnist John Cazano on Tuesday in a statement. “I don’t like this attempted move, I don’t support it, I hope it does not happen…”
The NBA Hall of Famer, who was silent on the matter for four months, directed criticism at UCLA’s “highest-level directors of athletics” for making a decision that’s more “about money” than the best interest of its athletes.
“I don’t believe that joining the Big 10 is in the best interest of UCLA, its students, its athletes, its alumni, its fans, the rest of the UC system, the State of California, or the world at large,” wrote Walton.
“It’s all about money”
Following about 100 years in the Pac-12, UCLA and USC announced their departures for the Big Ten On June 30, with a start date of Aug. 2, 2024.
The move created a first-hand crisis for the Pac-12, which has been trending downwards, with the 10 schools left considering options while they look for a media rights agreement that would tie them up together for the rest of the decade.
The pac-12 conference formed following the disbanding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), whose main members founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. The Pac-12 North includes Oregon State, Oregon, Stanford, Washington State, Washington, and Cal-Berkeley. The Pac-12 South teams are Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, USC, Colorado, and Utah.
Why Walton condemns UCLA potential move
Here are some of the many reasons Walton, one of the most iconic athletes in Pac-12 history, is against UCLA’s potential move to the Big 10:
* the negative impact on the health, both physical and mental, of UCLA’s student-athletes,
* the negative impact of the excessive travel will extend to families, friends, fans, alumni and everyone else,
* this proposed move to the Big 10 is contrary to UCLA’s and the entire UC System’s stated and professed environmental sustainability goals,
* this proposed move to the Big 10 has serious negative implications and ramifications for the University of California, Berkeley
What is the Big Ten?
The Big Ten represents a group of ten of the nation’s public universities that got together to form standards for intercollegiate athletics. The Big Ten proclaims to hold itself to high standards in not only athletics, but also in academics and school spirit.