Conference realignment makes another seismic shift

By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Sports Writer

Conference realignment in college sports has been going on since 1984, when the Supreme Court invalidated the NCAA’s national television contract for football. The conference juggling has gone through ebbs and flows through the years since, from small schools bumping up to bigger leagues to power programs switching to other major conferences. The latest move, UCLA and USC bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, could be part of a tectonic shift. Not just because of the marquee-named schools involved, but because it happened at a time when the NCAA is looking to take a more decentralized approach to governing college athletics, handing more power to schools and conferences.