UCLA and USC to the Big Ten? Sure, why not?

The Power 5 is now the Power 2.

That’s the right way to read the bombshell news that UCLA and Southern Cal are leaving the Pac-12 — decimating the Pac-12 — and headed for the greener ($$$$$) grass of the Big Ten.

This is like Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference, except those moves at least make easier geographic sense since the SEC already had infiltrated the Longhorn State.

If this deal is finalized for a 2024 move, the Big Ten will shine from sea to shining sea, from the boardwalks of the Jersey Shore to the Santa Monica pier.

Congrats to Penn State and Rutgers. You’re again at the winning table. Condolences to Bill Walton, who can no longer rightly boast about his beloved Pac-8-to-10-to-12 as the Conference of Champions. A Pac-12 without the Los Angeles schools can barely keep the Pacific in its name. There’s no there there anymore, no matter how much Arizona or Stanford or Washington or Cal achieves in any specific sport.

“Source: Don’t assume the Big Ten is done,” reports San Jose college sportswriter Jon Wilner, who broke the news of the UCLA/USC moves.

Wilner then did a little speculating, suggesting that if the Big Ten wants to get to 18 schools, the short list is Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Duke, and Missouri.

Let’s keep speculating: The rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference is looking at these moves, real and imagined, and wondering how it can avoid the ACC’s joining the ranks of the Pac-12. If you’re Clemson, do you want to be left behind, or do the leaving behind? (Hello, Southeastern Conference.) Same for Florida State, Miami, etc.

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If you’re Notre Dame, you can congratulate yourself for playing smart cards so far, but you might want to ask: Time for that Big Ten call? You don’t want to eventually be in a position where USC has no room left on the football schedule for the Irish.

If the Pac-12 could have held on to either UCLA or USC, this wouldn’t be so dreadful for the league. But both schools were smart enough to know they’re stronger together, wherever they are.

Is this good for college sports overall? Strike the question, it doesn’t matter anymore. If you can’t put together an alumni NIL collective, you’re not in this game, not eligible for Power 2 consideration.

Talk of rivalries ruined sounds nostalgic by now. (Personally, I still can’t help thinking Maryland is in the ACC, when that’s been false for a while now.) Another East Coast winner: Big East basketball. A safe port in the storm for a bunch of traditional hoops schools.

» READ MORE: USC, UCLA in process of joining Big Ten, AP source says

There should be some kind of poaching competition, a trophy awarded maybe once a decade, who did it best. The Big Ten now has poached from the Pac-12, Big 12 (Nebraska), ACC (Maryland), and Big East (Rutgers.) An incredible feat of thievery, except these leagues have long since proven to be artificial constructions. Nothing shocks anymore.

Let’s take that back. There’s one bombshell left. HARVARD AND YALE TO JOIN THE BIG TEN. PRINCETON LEFT OUT, BLOCKED BY RUTGERS. That would be a headline. That would mark the end of the whole thing. You heard it here first, and last.