California Hypocrisy: USC & UCLA Leaving For Big 10

[Webster]

Background....

USC, UCLA sports leaving Pacific-12 for Big Ten Conference

Sports powers will abandon longtime West Coast home, the latest move in a conference reshuffling that has prioritized dollars over tradition and geography.

www.insidehighered.com

The University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, two bedrock members of the Pacific-12 Conference, announced late Thursday that they will leave their longtime home on the West Coast for the Big Ten Conference, the traditional bastion of Midwestern athletics that in recent years has expanded all the way to New Jersey.

The shift, which will be effective in 2024—after the Pac-12’s current television contracts expire, USC noted in its news release—is the latest in a decade-long seismic shift in the landscape of big-time college football and men’s basketball that has blown up historical geographic boundaries and rivalries in universities’ pursuit of greater revenues.

The addition of USC and UCLA will give the Big Ten league 16 members (it currently has 14, as does the Southeastern Conference), and their departure will be a gut punch for the Pac-12, losing two key members in its largest television market, Los Angeles....

The hypocrisy bit is because under California Assembly Bill 1887, state-funded institutions - including public universities - are prohibited from traveling to certain states...including Big 10 member states Indiana, Iowa and Ohio...

In AB 1887, the California Legislature determined that "California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (a)(5).) To that end, AB 1887 prohibits a state agency, department, board, or commission from requiring any state employees, officers, or members to travel to a state that, after June 26, 2015, has enacted a law that (1) has the effect of voiding or repealing existing state or local protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; (2) authorizes or requires discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; or (3) creates an exemption to antidiscrimination laws in order to permit discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subds. (b)(1), (2).) In addition, the law prohibits California from approving a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to such a state. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b)(2).)

The travel prohibition applies to state agencies, departments, boards, authorities, and commissions, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, and the California State University. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b).)

The law also requires the Attorney General to develop, maintain, and post on his Internet Web site a current list of states that are subject to the travel ban. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (e).)

I can't wait to see someone sue both USC and UCLA over it....