How Could UCLA Leave the Pac-12 Without Bringing Cal Along With It?

UC Regents will discuss the separation of the UC system's two flagship football schools next week. ESPN reports on the surprising move of the Bruins without Cal.

Nearly two weeks after the startling announcement that USC and UCLA will leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten in 2024, there remains the question of how UCLA could leave without taking its University of California system partner, Cal, with it.

An ESPN.com story posted on July 11 details much of the process that sent USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, and one part of that report addresses UCLA’s departure without bringing Cal along. 

The other issue is this: How could the UC Regents let UCLA leave the conference and leave Cal behind.

The UC Regents issue is not settled and Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News reported on July 12 (Tuesday) that the UC Regents will discuss UCLA's move with litigation possible.

BREAKING: UC Regents to discuss UCLA's move to Big Ten next week, "litigation" cited https://t.co/qmrQpDCTNS

— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) July 12, 2022

Here is an excerpt from Wilner's story:

The University of California’s Board of Regents is scheduled to discuss UCLA’s momentous move to the Big Ten — a move that could have serious financial repercussions for Cal — during a meeting next week.

The board, which oversees the prestigious university system’s 10 campuses, will discuss the Bruins’ stunning departure from the Pac-12 in a closed session on July 21, according to the agenda posted on the regents’ website.

And this from the Wilner report:

Can the regents prevent UCLA from departing the Pac-12, along with USC, in the summer of 2024?

Or are the regents themselves facing litigation for allowing the Bruins to leave the conference that has been their home for more than a century?

Let's also take a look at the portion of the ESPN report posted on July 11 that talks about the UCLA-Cal separation.

Here is the ESPN excerpt on that issue:

There was more surprise, according to sources, that UCLA was able to depart considering its close relationship with Cal as part of the University of California system. Cal and UCLA are the highest-profile schools in the system, and both regularly rank among the nation's best public universities.

"The mystery to me is how the regents allowed UCLA to go and leave Cal ... wounded," one source said. "This is not good for Cal or anybody else in the Pac-10."

As the president of the University of California, Dr. Michael Drake oversees 10 campuses, but prior to his appointment in June 2020, he served as the president of Ohio State for nearly seven years (Jarmond, a former assistant/deputy athletic director at Ohio State, overlapped with Drake for roughly four years before leaving to become the AD at Boston College in 2017.) Drake ostensibly would not have needed to be educated on the merits of Big Ten membership.

Drake's office denied a request from ESPN to interview Drake about his involvement in UCLA's move or the ramifications it will have on Cal. ESPN's request to speak with Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton was also denied.

"UCLA leadership informed President Drake that discussions between UCLA and the Big Ten were occurring but he was not involved at all in those discussions or in any negotiations," a spokesperson for the University of California Office of the President told ESPN in an email. "... decisions related to athletics are formulated and executed at the campus-level. There is no requirement for a decision from the University of California Board of Regents or the Office of the President."

Although the UC regents didn't need to formally approve UCLA's conference separation from Cal, UCLA likely needed support from key regents to make a move that, while helping itself, could hurt its sister school.

"You have to think UCLA didn't do this in a vacuum without the [UC] regents knowing," a Pac-12 source said.

A source told Wilner that Cal chancellor Carol Christ was "blindsided" by the news that UCLA was departing for the Big Ten.

Five questions remain:

--Could the UC Regents have done something to prevent the separation of Cal and UCLA?

--When did Cal officials learn that UCLA was planning to leave the Pac-12, or was the announcement that the Bruins will join the Big Ten the first they heard about it?

--What did Cal officials try to do regarding UCLA’s plans to leave the Pac-12, or did they learn about it too late to do anything?

--Are Cal officials annoyed that UCLA left without them?

--Does Cal have any recourse regarding possible action against the UC regents?

Cal and UCLA have been in the same football conference every year since 1928, and have played each other in football every year since 1933. They have been together through five conference names -- from the Pacific Coast Conference to the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) to the Pac-8 to the Pac-10 to the Pac-12. They were two of the four Pacific Coast Conference schools in 1943 and 1944, and two of the five AAWU members 1959, 1960 and 1961.

That will end in the 2024-25 school year, leaving the football future of the Pac-12 and Cal very much up in the air.

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Cover photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports

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