USC and UCLA made their bed and now the Pac 12's remaining schools should make them lie in it.
There's not much that can be done at this point; there's no saving the Pac 12 conference as we know it but there is at least one way that USC and UCLA can feel some pain for their greed on their way out of the door.
I'm not advocating for an "eye for an eye" approach to the world, we know how that works out in the end. I'm advocating for the remaining schools to stand up for themselves and have some pride instead of continuing to be supplicant to the Los Angeles schools.
Here's what every remaining Pac 10 school should do: forfeit every single game in every single sport the next two years against USC and UCLA.
You read that correctly - forfeit every game against USC and UCLA for the next two years.
Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams, here's your 4 game schedule! Mick Cronin and the Bruins basketball team, enjoy your season grinding to a stop in December!
It would be a fair punishment for a pair of schools that made exceptionally clear yesterday how they feel about the rest of the conference.
Capitulating to USC and UCLA and pretending like business goes on as usual would be weak and dangerous.
Think about if your spouse came to you and admitted they had cheated on you in the last few days, told you they were never really happy in the relationship and that there was nothing you could do to save the marriage because they were better than you and it would never change. THEN they told you they would be moving out in TWO YEARS!
That's what the Trojans and Bruins did yesterday.
Would your response to that admission by your spouse be "No problem, please make yourself comfortable!" or would your response be "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW AND TALK TO MY LAWYER!"
The Pac 12 doesn't have to take it. They don't have to agree. They can become the Big Ten's problem right now. Sure, TV partners won't like it but guess what else TV partners aren't going to like? The Pac 12 without USC and UCLA.
The only way the remaining schools survive this nuclear bomb is if they band together, circle the wagons and find strength in the remaining numbers.
One way to start is by all agreeing that USC and UCLA's membership doesn't end in 2024, it unofficially ends now.
Think its petulant or immature to forfeit games? I think its reckless and arrogant to abandon the conference.
If the Pac 12 wants to fight back, it can't just add Boise State and San Diego State or force some Frankenstein conference with the still beating parts of what was once the Big 12. No, the conference needs to act like its worth something before anyone else can treat it like it IS worth something.
That starts with the LA Cold Shoulder. Forfeit the games against LA and start to win your conference back.