The expansion of college football isn’t likely to be complete If power brokers from the Big Ten have their way.
It is anticipated that the conference will focus on schools that are currently members of the Pac-12 according to a report written by the insider in college football Matt Hayes.
Big Ten officials want to seek at least two and possibly four Pac-12 institutions for membership.
The list includes Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford and Stanford being the only exception. Big Ten zeroing in on Washington and Oregon as the top choices to realign.
Big Ten already moving west
The previous offseason in the offseason, the Big Ten announced a bombshell move, when it announced the addition of West Coast prestige programs USC and UCLA Both of them are located within LA. Los Angeles media market.
The decision made by in helping the Big Ten sign an unprecedented media contract with a value of around $7 billion in the span of seven years however, it also raised concerns over logistics and travel.
Students at two L.A. schools will have to travel at least 1,300 miles in order to play on the road in the Big Ten, with Nebraska is the closest Big Ten opponent geographically.
This very real issue has been a catalyst for officials within the Big Ten to consider adding additional West Coast members to ease some of the travel requirements.
Oregon, Washington speculation
It’s not the first time that two Pacific Northwest schools have been associated with the Big Ten and its expansion plans.
One year ago there were reports suggesting that the schools might be able to convince them to quit the Pac-12 fold in the event that the price was reasonable.
Action Network reported that officials from both schools had a meeting together with Big Ten personnel about potentially joining the conference in the near future.
Both are thought to be highly valuable football investments that could increase the quality of the conference’s schedule and expand its reach to its Northwest market.
In the moment as of now, it appears that the Pac-12 remains the sole Power 5 league still working to sign a media rights agreement.
Notable schedule change
In the season, the offseason began and Ohio State canceled its previous home-and-home game with Washington the move shocked industry insiders and pumped speculation about whether UW might be in contention to be a part of to the Big Ten.
In the last season in the last season, it was revealed that the SEC “directed” Georgia and Tennessee to cancel their scheduled games with Oklahoma after it was discovered it was the Sooners and Texas will be joining the SEC by 2025. In the present, Texas and OU will join the SEC in 2024.