So much instability and change are flowing through college football and college sports right now. The conference landscape in 2023 is very different from what we will see in 2024. Next year, four new teams will join the Big Ten, and four new teams will join the Big 12. Two teams will leave the Big 12 and move to the SEC. The Pac-12 will cease to exist.
It’s impossible to avoid comparisons of the current Big 12 with next year’s Big 12, with the current SEC and next year’s SEC, this year’s ACC with next year’s ACC, and so on. People who follow college sports are intensely interested in comparing the way things are with the way things will be one year from now.
All of this includes a comparison of this year’s Big Ten with next year’s version of the conference. We will spend the season wondering how USC — also Oregon, Washington, and UCLA — stack up against the Big Ten teams they will join next year.
Let’s begin with a rankings list of the 2024 Big Ten — including the incoming Pac-12 teams — after Week 1 of the college football season: