UCLA is the canary in the coal mine for CFB
The Bruins lead in transparency about the issues with CFB realignment
I’ve been working since the Pac-12’s Red Wedding on August 4, 2023 to obtain records from schools leaving the Pac 12. Below is a sample of my public records requests and the delays in responses from the institutions. UCLA provided a response in 30 days, which included their agreement with the Big 10 and emails leading up to their decision to leave. These emails allow us to see the pace at which the deal came together - 30 days to reach a decision to leave and 15 more days to document their membership agreement. Using this timeline, all the schools below should have responded to my request by now.
UCLA is our Canary in the Coal Mine
UCLA is by far the most transparent of the Pac 12 schools in terms of documenting their decision process, the cost of travel and support services associated with joining the Big10, and their plan to assess the impact of realignment on student athletes. The impact assessment was presented to their Board of Regents on November 17, 2022 and is provided below.
Following the above presentation, UCLA prepared and presented a plan to their Board of Regents the following month (December 2022) on how they intended to mitigate the negative impacts of their move to the Big 10. That board document is provided below.
UCLA is the only school so far to commit resources to mitigate impacts of realignment, and prepare a plan to measure the effectiveness of the plan. Item #8 in the above clip indicates they will conduct an annual survey of the impacts. This may be one of the few work products that will give us insight into how realignment is working.