USC/UCLA in Good Hands with Football, Basketball Programs

Two teams and two weeks remain in the Pac-12’s quest to end its national championship drought in the major sports.

Not since the 2004 season in football and the 1996-97 season in men’s basketball has the conference claimed a trophy in either of the money-making sports.

But even if Arizona and UCLA falter in the final weekends of the NCAA Tournament, the past few months have positioned the conference for long-haul success with shrewd moves by the schools responsible for so many past triumphs.

Finally, after years of stumbling and fiddling while everything seemed ready to burn, USC and UCLA have locked up coaches capable of winning big in both major sports.

With Lincoln Riley in charge of USC football and Mick Cronin at the controls of UCLA basketball, the conference’s most successful programs have the best combination of coaches since Pete Carroll was winning titles for the Trojans and Ben Howland and the Bruins were regulars at the Final Four.

Each school’s secondary sport is seemingly well-positioned, too, with Andy Enfield winning 20 or more games annually for USC basketball and Chip Kelly finally over the hill with UCLA football.

The shift toward stability first took shape in December, when the Trojans lured Riley away from Oklahoma with a contract believed to be worth in excess of $100 million. (Championships aren’t cheap.)

A month later, after qualifying for a bowl for the first time in five years, UCLA agreed to a contract extension with Kelly.

Then came the basketball moves:

— On March 9, the Trojans announced a contract extension for Enfield.

— On March 17, UCLA did the same with Cronin.

Both coaches are signed through the 2027-28 season, and both chose to remain in Los Angeles despite drawing interest from Power Five schools close to their roots.

Enfield, who grew up in Pennsylvania and went to college in Baltimore (Johns Hopkins), was reportedly on Maryland’s list.

Cronin, who’s from Cincinnati, rejected overtures from nearby Louisville to restore the Cardinals to blue-blood status.

Finally, a conference that repeatedly has lost head coaches to Power Five competitors — from Cuonzo Martin (Cal) on the basketball side to Mike Leach (WSU), Mel Tucker (Colorado) and Mario Cristobal (Oregon) in football — was able to keep two successful coaches in place.

As a quartet, Riley, Kelly, Cronin and Enfield represent the best combination of major sport coaches in Los Angeles in decades. (Kelly’s contract is the first to expire, but not for four more years.)

The development comes just in time for the Pac-12, especially with regard to Riley and Cronin.

Later this year, the conference will begin negotiating its media rights contract for the 2024-25 school year and beyond.

When the same process unfolded a decade ago, the number of cable and satellite homes within the conference footprint was the key valuation metric — hence the need to expand into Utah and Colorado.

But the market dynamics are different this time around. Now, it’s more about driving ratings than counting total eyeballs. Big brands rule the landscape, which explains why the SEC — and its media partner, ESPN — wanted Texas and Oklahoma.

In the Pac-12, the biggest brands are USC football, with seven poll-era national titles, and UCLA basketball, with 11 NCAA championship banners.

Those 18 combined titles are three times the number won by all the other schools combined while members of the conference.

Commissioner George Kliavkoff can set his negotiating strategy knowing the Pac-12’s most historically successful programs in the biggest sports in the nation’s No. 2 media market are in capable hands.

The recently-completed football season was forgettable. The basketball regular season wasn’t much better. Regardless of whether Arizona or UCLA claims the NCAA title, the conference will emerge from the 2021-22 cycle with its centerpiece programs in better shape than they have been in years.

The Pac-12 can succeed without USC football and UCLA basketball at the top of their games. We’ve seen examples over the years, driven by Washington in football, Arizona in basketball and Oregon in both sports.

But the conference won’t thrive on the field, on the court or at the negotiating table without USC football and UCLA basketball consistently at or near the top of their games.

Both are much closer now than they have been in forever.

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