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Blake Baumgartner, ESPN Staff Writer
Lincoln Riley’s focus since taking the USC job has been trying to nail down the state of California when it comes to recruiting.
Rumblings about USC’s and UCLA‘s desires to be the only West Coast teams in the Big Ten have been out there, and Friday’s news that Oregon and Washington would be joining the Big Ten in 2024 as well has reverberated around the college football world.
That impact has been immediate, as four-star cornerback Dakoda Fields (No. 75 in the 2024 ESPN 300) decided Monday night to change his commitment from the Trojans to the Ducks.
He is the third-highest-ranked recruit in the Ducks’ class and is the third ESPN 300 cornerback (Aaron Flowers; No. 121 overall and Ify Obidegwu; No. 129 overall) to join Dan Lanning’s program for next year.
Fields, of Junipero Serra High School (California), initially committed to USC back on June 5. He took official visits to both Washington (June 21) and Oregon (June 23).
Oregon’s 2024 class ranks seventh in ESPN’s latest team rankings, and its 13 ESPN 300 pledges are tied with LSU and Michigan for second most in the country, behind Georgia’s 19.
