ATHENS — The surprise addition of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten last week has triggered a great deal of speculation across the college football landscape of “What’s next?”

Many programs have been forced to take inventory, those of the less-established variety measuring their own self-worth.

Tradition is one thing, appeal is another, but the ultimate gauge seems to be market size.

This, based the the Big Ten’s addition of Rutgers and Maryland in 2014, which expanded the league’s TV footprint 33-percent at the time, and the SEC’s inclusion of Texas and Oklahoma (by 2025), which represents the No. 5 media market in the nation.

The Trojans and Bruins, both from the Los Angeles area, are from the No. 2 television market in the nation.

According to recently compiled data from Zach Miller, the Big Ten already had the most-watched team in the land (based on 2015-19 numbers) in its conference — The Ohio State.

Current SEC teams, meanwhile occupied the No. 2 (Alabama), No. 5 (LSU), No. 6 (Auburn) and No. 7 (Georgia) Spots on the list

In 2021, the teams most-watched ranked in this order, per Miller:

No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Penn State, No. 5 Georgia, No. 6 Oklahoma, No. 7 Auburn, No. 8 Michigan State, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 10 Oregon.

Miller had previously attempted to rank the “most valuable” college football programs for conference realignment, and again, his metrics put Ohio State at the top of the list.

The factors used included:

• Home attendance

• Market size/share

• Valuation

• Social media following

• TV viewership

Here is his list, with SEC Teams in BoldFace type: