Lincoln Riley says he did not have a reaction to news of Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten.

USC and UCLA jumped from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten last year. On Friday, Oregon and Washington followed suit as the Pac-12 collapsed. The two premier brands on the West Coast will still be in the same conference when the 2024 season kicks off.

“We’re trying to win the Pac-12 and then we’ll deal with the Big Ten when that time comes,” Riley said Friday evening when he met with reporters.

USC leadership was said to not be totally on board with the prospect of welcoming the Ducks to their new league.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel said on the Paul Finebaum Show Friday that former USC athletic director Mike Bohn was adamant that part of the allure of the new conference was that it gave the Trojans the ability to “own” the West Coast and become the “destination” program on the West Coast.

Oregon joining the league — from a recruiting standpoint — certainly disrupts that theory. The Ducks and Trojans frequently clash on the recruiting trail. Oregon more than holds its own against the Southern California school.

In the Big Ten, those competitions will remain fierce. And now you’ll have the Michigans and Ohio States of the sport not only coming to town to recruit kids, but coming to town to play games in front of recruits’ families.

Will that prompt any conversations within Riley’s staff about their recruiting strategy going forward?

“No. No. I mean, we’re going to recruit locally and nationally as hard as we can,” Riley said. “We came here to win national championships. To win national championships, you’re competing against everybody. So, in my mind, nothing’s changed. It doesn’t matter what conference you’re in. Most schools in the country are gonna come recruit in Southern California. There’s a lot of good players out here.

“Very confident in our brand, very confident in our approach, and our goals are completely unaffected by anything like that.”

The Big Ten vote to admit Oregon and Washington was said to be unanimous. USC and UCLA did not have a vote during that proceeding. But Riley also seemed to push back a bit on the notion that USC will be disappointed to share the Big Ten with Oregon.

“Our leadership made the decision to go into the future with the Big Ten after this season because it was the best thing for USC. That was not contingent on any other schools, on anything else,” Riley said. “We don’t make decisions here at USC based on anyone else.”