UC regents delay final decision on UCLA’s Big Ten move until December
The UCLA regents are moving with a deliberate pace, but are not taking any major steps to move the Big Ten from California to the West Coast until early December.
The university has not received a formal proposal from the Big Ten, nor have the regents had the opportunity to discuss which conference would receive the most benefit, said Michael A. Roth, UCLA’s vice president for external relations.
The main reason the Regents have not announced a decision, Roth said, is that the university has not had formal contact from the Big 12, who have been given until the end of the month to negotiate.
“I’m really disappointed because it’s coming so close to the beginning of the school year,” Roth said. “We will make every possible effort to make a decision.”
Roth said he did not believe the regents were waiting for a formal proposal from the Big 12 because the school did not need a formal offer from any conference.
“We’ve been working with a group of states in the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Northwest, and Eastern Conference states, trying to meet with them and find common ground,” Roth said. “We’ve been trying to reach consensus on a plan that would work for all of us.”
The regents are expected to determine when the Big 12 meets with the UCLA regents in early October or late November, Roth said, adding that the Big 12 meeting is not required before the regents’ final decision, which is set to be made by Dec. 6.
The schools have been given until Dec. 5 to submit formal proposals to the Big 12, but the deadline was extended to Dec. 6, which means the Big 12 will still have a decision date before the regents, Roth said.
UCLA has not submitted a proposal for a 10th-year affiliation for the West Coast, but he said his office was not surprised because the university had not had any formal negotiations with the Big 12, and that the school had been working with a group of states in the Midwest, Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest and Eastern Conference states.
UCLA has been in contact with the Big Ten since December 2006, when the school was selected to be the new home for the Big Ten Network, but he said his office has not received a formal proposal from the Big Ten.
“It’s not that surprising,
