The Big Ten Conference expansion brought four powerhouse football programs from the dissolved Pac-12, and because of their arrival, new rivalries are starting to bud. 

Take Michigan and USC for example, as those two ranked squads had an absolute thriller at “The Big House” in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this past week. The Wolverines came out on top, thanks to a last-minute touchdown to make it 27-24.

One former Wolverine loved every second of that 89-yard drive to cap a tremendous victory at home. 

“Well, I loved Michigan beating USC the other week, that’s for sure,” Tom Brady told Fox News Digital.

It is odd for college football fans to see USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon facing off against other Big Ten schools in conference play, but it will quickly become commonplace in the seasons to come. 

If anything, games like the one between the Wolverines and Trojans last week will turn up more and more considering the talent and football tradition that each school adds. 

TOM BRADY PARTNERS WITH ABBOTT, BIG TEN CONFERENCE TO TACKLE BLOOD SHORTAGE IN US IN ‘REALLY UNIQUE’ WAY

Being a California native, Brady knows all about the Trojan tradition, and he said that was where he wanted to go when he starred at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, California. 

Obviously, that never came to fruition. So, when he saw Michigan’s come-from-behind victory, he loved being about to “stick it to” the Trojans. 

“USC, I wanted to go there, but they didn’t want me,” he said. “So, I always kind of feel like I can stick it to them, even with all the quarterbacks they’ve had over the years with Carson Palmer, [Matt] Leinert, my boy Matt Cassel and [Mark] Sanchez. They have such a great football tradition, so it was nice to see the Wolverines kicked their a– last week.”

The Big Ten Conference is filled with football traditions of its own, having other iconic programs like Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Indiana. Even Rutgers is known for being the birthplace of college football as it hosted the first intercollegiate game in 1869 on College Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey. 

Michigan defensive back Makari Paige, #7, and defensive back Jyaire Hill, #20, tackle USC wide receiver Zachariah Branch, #1, during the first half at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (IMAGN)

The tradition only grows, as the USC-UCLA rivalry enters the fold while they create new ones as the years and seasons pass by. 

For Brady, he is hoping, no matter a new or old rivalry, that his Wolverines will hoist the Big Ten Championship trophy when all is said and done. 

In the meantime, Brady is watching these rivalries be put to the test off the field during this college football season, as he partnered with the Big Ten and Abbott, the multinational medical devices and health care company, for its We Give Blood Drive. 

This nationwide blood drive competition involves all 18 schools in the conference, where they are hoping to help tackle a health problem in the United States. 

“We’re at a huge blood shortage in the U.S., and for every blood donation, you can save up to three lives,” Brady told Fox News Digital Thursday. “I think that’s the important part. Sometimes, we take for granted the little things that make big impacts, and this is one of them.”

The way the We Give Blood Drive initiative works is that students, alumni and fans of the 18 schools involved will see mobile blood drives on campuses throughout the college football season, from Sept. 26 through Dec. 6. Those who wish to donate can also go to any center across the country and show proof of donation, and everyone will receive a one-month free subscription to B1G+, the conference’s streaming service. 

Michigan Wolverines quarterback Tom Brady, #10, in action against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. (USA TODAY Sports)

The school credited with donating the most blood — each donation counts for one point — will receive a $1 million donation to advance student or community health. 

“I love that people are trying to do positive things and find really unique ways and strategies to create awareness. Abbott partnering with the Big Ten and really making it a competition, all the students can all participate, and they give back to the school when the team competes and when they win. It’s just very creative. It’s very thoughtful. It’s a fun way to do good things in our communities and just happy to partner with Abbott and the Big Ten to do it.”

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Thursday night the Dodgers won the division for the 11th time in 12 years. And then celebrated like they won the World Series. Something they have done only one time since 1988, and that was the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The last two seasons the Dodgers failed to win a postseasons series, being swept last season by Arizona and in four games in by the Padres in 2022.

With a 10-zillion dollar payroll, Thursday’s meaningless celebration better not be the only one the Dodgers have this season. If it is, there are many people on the team who need to be part of another organization next season.

Erik Schuman
Fountain Valley

::

Nice season so far, Dodgers. I didn’t see any trophies handed out on Thursday night. The Dodgers’ first playoff game is in eight days. The first spring training game next year will be on Feb. 20.

Please, Dodgers, understand and know the difference. Treat the playoff game like a playoff game, and the spring training game like a spring training game.

Steve Hoisch
West Hills

::

Ahead of the annual letters complaining that the Dodgers celebrate the winning of a mere division title with Champagne and much merriment, a reminder:

This is baseball, not basketball. These guys slog through 162 games, not 82, only to be faced with a playoff format now so bloated that — this being baseball — the best team might not win, let alone reach the World Series (see: 2023, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks).

So I’ll enjoy the joy of every step and take nothing as a given, which makes baseball special.

Donn Risolo
Altadena

At his darkest moment, when the worst thoughts flooded his soul, Mike Pereira wondered whether it was time to give up. Nothing alleviated his back pain — not yoga, not pilates, not any of the various methods of pain management his doctors recommended. Something we take for granted, stepping out of bed each morning, became too excruciating to endure.

Pereira had spent 14 years as an NFL sideline judge and vice president for league officiating before transitioning into a broadcasting pioneer — the first rules analyst for NFL broadcasts when Fox Sports hired him in 2010. But last year, at age 73 and in deep agony, his mind wandered to a dark place. He said he had suicidal thoughts.

“I had never experienced anything like the pain I had,” Pereira said. “I almost gave up. I mean, I almost gave up on life as I knew it. I became such a burden to anybody around me and in so much pain that I laid in my bed saying, ‘Is it really worth this?’ I never thought of myself as someone who would contemplate that. When you’re in that much pain and it slips into your mind one time, it keeps going around your mind. You have to fight it.”

Now, after missing the entire 2023 NFL season, Pereira is back on television for Fox, working a full schedule of college football and NFL games. That’s the result of successful spinal surgery in November at a San Francisco hospital, an 8 1/2-hour procedure that involved fusing seven levels of Pereira’s spinal vertebrae. Pereira was hospital-bound for a week after the surgery, followed by another in-patient week at a rehab facility in Sacramento, Calif.

He was told the surgery was successful, but it didn’t feel that way as he lay helpless in his hospital bed in November. He couldn’t sleep, he could barely move, and his blood pressure would crash anytime he attempted to get out of bed. Finally, he was able to get into a wheelchair, then he moved up to navigating a walker.

“I felt a sense of accomplishment over the simplest things,” he said. “When you’ve been that low and then you feel the accomplishment of being able to achieve something that you couldn’t do before, your attitude changes.”

The healing continued, and Pereira was strong enough to travel to the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco in January. He surprised Fox’s top NFL crew during a production meeting at their hotel and was overwhelmed by his colleagues leaping out of their chairs to greet him.

“The sincere and genuine love that I felt at that moment was overwhelming,” Pereira said. “That moment convinced me I was coming back to work.”

I’m back and well in Cleveland. I’m so thankful! pic.twitter.com/N7bggnmRo4

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 8, 2024

Pereira said his top bosses at Fox Sports — CEO Eric Shanks and executive producer Brad Zager — asked him prior to the season how much travel he wanted to do, and he has opted for eight or nine regular-season games on the road (he switches off with fellow rules analyst Dean Blandino) and the rest working from Fox’s Century City studios. (When Pereira and Blandino work from the studio, they watch games from what Fox Sports employees call the “Sky Box,” which is where the pregame show is done.) His road trips so far have included Cleveland for Week 1 and Dallas last week. This week, Pereira will work from Los Angeles — one college game Friday night, nine college games Saturday and four NFL games Sunday.

“I’m now almost 10 1/2 months from the surgery, and I can walk 2 miles a day,” he said. “I can do just about everything that I could before with the exception of I can’t put shoes on by myself. I’ve been after Howie Long to give me some Skechers, but he’s not come through yet (laughs). But I don’t care about any of the small issues because I have my life back. I mean, it was gone and now I have it back.”

We now take for granted rules analysts working on sports television and streaming, but Pereira was a genuine game-changer when Fox created the role for him in 2010. Viewers had longed for broadcasters to provide accurate explanations from the NFL’s Byzantine rule book, and Pereira took the burden off the announcers. Joe Buck once told me he considered Pereira the best hire in Fox Sports history. Pereira said he could have never seen his hiring in 2010 as a precursor for the many rules analysts we now see on television across sports.

“It’s wonderment because I never in my mind saw this job coming,” Pereira said. “I never thought when it was my time to retire from the NFL, I would have something like this available. I’m not only proud of the fact of what it has meant to us as former football officials and the role of trying to educate the fans, but I also take pride in the fact that I watch a soccer game, there’s a rules analyst. Same with the NBA. I now see networks with golf rules analysts. Fox started it, but at least I was decent enough at it that everybody felt it was a good idea. I take pride in that. I really do.”

Talking to Pereira these days, it’s hard not to come away with some perspective on mortality. He said he feels like a new person and has such little pain that he no longer has to take Tylenol or any kind of pain reliever. There was even an unexpected result from the surgery: He measures 2 inches taller in height.

“There are things I can’t do, but I’m living my absolute best life at home and at work,” Pereira said. “Some people might say that, but because of the appreciation of where I’ve been, I really believe I’m living my best life today.”

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

(Top photo of Mike Pereira on the field before last week’s Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys game: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)