If there was any doubt before, the Big Ten’s move on Friday to add Oregon and Washington now makes the conference one of the dominant forces in college football. It might also change how the Big Ten is viewed for getting teams into the College Football Playoff.
The addition of Oregon and Washington on Friday from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten is a seismic shift in the college football landscape. Not only does it further enhance the Big Ten as a super-conference, but it essentially was the death knell for the Pac-12, which will be down to four teams come 2024.
On Friday, the Big Ten Network’s Gerry DiNardo shared his thoughts on what the conference’s expansion means for the existing members and how adding two top-tier programs will impact all the member teams.
“Well, it’s a tough league now. It got tougher when (the Big Ten) added UCLA and USC and now it got even tougher. So if you look at the competitive balance, if you look at the recent history of all the Big Ten schools – for some people this is going to make it even harder to win,” DiNardo said this weekend on the Big Ten Network.
“In other words, how if you ranked one through 16 – if you rank USC and UCLA, and you have let’s say what people would consider the fifth best job in the Big Ten. Right. Now you may have the sixth-best job or the seventh-best job.
“So these schools, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Oregon – they slot into the 14 for a lot of teams in the conference that’s making it more competitive. So that would that’s my first thought.”
DiNardo continued with his analysis and belief that the Big Ten’s expansion will also change the perception of the conference for the College Football Playoff.
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“The second thought is, especially with going to a 12-team playoff, most likely will go to 10 conference games because you can lose two games and still make the playoff,” DiNardo said .
“You add Oregon and Washington – you might be able to lose three games, four games and still make the playoff. And the last thing I thought of when I heard this is we’ve been talking about the travel with USC and UCLA. Right this is the this is the biggest problem with bringing on UCLA and USC. Now we bring up two more West Coast teams, it might be time to revisit East and West to cut to travel down for the student-athletes. And that certainly wouldn’t be popular with most of the present East coaches.”
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