USC and UCLA bolting for Big Ten even surprised ESPN's president of content

One would think that the massive shakeup known as conference realignment would be old news to the higher-ups and in places like ESPN. After all, it didn't take a crystal ball to see big changes coming once the likes of Oklahoma and Texas bolted for the SEC and USC and UCLA ditched the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.

Those were the first rumbles of what has ultimately become a groundswell that has changed the look of many conferences as we know them and could potentially (likely) usher in the end of the over 100-year-old Pac-12.

Schools switching conferences is now the expectation rather than the outlier, but to hear ESPN president of content Burke Magnus retell the past year or so, it was the southern California teams joining the extremely Midwest-based Big Ten that was the straw that likely broke the camel's back.

It was also extremely surprising, even to a content-focused executive like Magnus, who spoke with The Athletic's Richard Deitsch:

"I’ve always scratched my head over the USC and UCLA moves to the Big Ten. At its core, college is various regional confederations, if you will, of like-minded schools with some geography underpinning it. There’s this regional appeal to college sports which has blossomed into national interest. But yet, at its core, the brands and the schools, and by association the conferences, are regional in nature. I think that’s what in large part drives the interest.

Despite all the realignment that has happened over the last two decades, it was the first one that really felt like it was unattached to a geographical rationalization, if you know what I’m saying. It just felt odd in that regard. Given the profile of those two schools and the importance of those two schools to the Pac-12, I feel like that had a big impact on ultimately what transpired."

What transpired was the ultimate collapse of the Pac-12. Sure, four member teams remain -- Oregon State, Washington State, Cal and Stanford -- but there's nobody the conference can bring in that will even come close to replacing one of the defectors, let alone all of them. 

The remaining Pac-12 schools could consider joining a conference like the ACC, because as Mangus pointed out, regionality is apparently no longer a thing in college sports.

In the new world of the "haves" and the "have nots," though, Oregon State, Washington State, Cal and Stanford are certainly on the outside looking in.