THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: What the L.A. schools' move to Big Ten might mean for WSU

You know the disgusting details by now.

The University of Southern California decided that the Pac-12 Conference was more of a hindrance than a help to its lofty ambitions — on the football field and regarding its bank balance.

So, in a cold-blooded move that caught almost everyone by surprise, USC put crosstown neighbor UCLA in the back seat and took a wild drive across the country.

The Trojans will end this trip in the Big Ten, after bulldozing former friends and colleagues in the Pac-12 — the conference of which it was a founding member more than a century ago.

There are a few details left to work out, but mostly they involve UCLA.

As part of the University of California system, the Los Angeles school is governed by the same regents that run Cal-Berkeley — giving UCLA a fairly seedy look as it tries to abandon its brothers for competition a couple thousand miles away.

However things play out with UCLA, though, make no mistake …

This seismic shift in college athletics is all about USC, and its willingness to trample anyone in what it hopes will be a return to national prominence.

OH, AND it’s certainly about two media giants who now are locked in a battle for viewers and profit.

The Big Ten is a FOX product, while the SEC (debuting new recruits Texas and Oklahoma), belongs to ESPN.

As the snagging of USC and UCLA proved without question, these broadcast behemoths are reacting to that pre-fight call …

“Let’s get ready to rumble!”

My friend and longtime broadcaster Verne Lundquist called SEC games for years, and when he walked away, he said, “You kid yourself for a few hours each Saturday, but then you’re back in the real world — where big-time college sports is just a sewer.”

If you think Verne was overstating that insult, consider a statement from Big Ten president Kevin Warren.

Just a year ago, when Texas and Oklahoma bolted for the SEC, there was a fear that ESPN was trying to own college football entirely.

So, the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC formed what they called The Alliance as a counterweight to the SEC.

“Hopefully, this will bring some much-needed stability in college athletics,” Warren said when the Alliance was announced.

You’d like to believe that Warren didn’t know how greedy his conference would be in the immediate future when he spoke those words, but …

Nah.

He knew.

Welcome to the sewer.

CLOSER to home, there is natural concern about the fate of Washington State’s athletic program when the smoke clears from all of this conference reshuffling.

I’d love to be optimistic, but …

Almost any scenario that evolves from the USC-UCLA defection would seem to leave the Cougs worse off than they were 24 hours ago.

If there are no further departures (and several are rumored), then WSU is left in either a Pac-10 that faces a far less rosy negotiation for its media rights next year — or a Pac-12 that has added a couple of schools that won’t come close to the draw of USC and UCLA.

The ultimate nightmare in Pullman would be the Big Ten aiming for a super conference, perhaps luring the Arizona schools, Utah, Colorado, Oregon (which has ambitions equal to USC) and, yep, U-Dub.

It’s tough to picture Cal and Stanford dishonoring themselves by bailing out if they’re invited, but nobody knows for sure.

That Bay Area TV market is immense, after all.

If it comes to all-out warfare, schools like Washington State will either be left in legacy conferences that are smaller and poorer — or forced to downgrade entirely if the original group disbands completely (as the once-proud Southwest Conference was forced to do).

For the Cougs, crazy as this would have sounded a week ago, that could mean something like landing in the Mountain West.

At the moment, we can only wait and see.

But we know one thing for certain.

If you’re expecting schools and conferences to act for the good of the group, thinking these are grand and famous universities that should do what’s right …

Forget it.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason, and weekly beginning in October.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”