It does look as though the Big Ten’s next expansion move is imminent. According to multiple reports on Friday, the Big Ten is expected to extend invitations to join the conference to Oregon and Washington with an official vote coming as early as Friday afternoon. This just within days of initial reports surfacing suggesting a small committee of Big Ten leaders gave authorization to Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti to review the two Pac-12 members as prospective members.
That was either a formality or Petitti came back quickly with promising results. Whatever the case may be, it is now expected the Big Ten will soon be announcing the additions of its 17th and 18th members and third and fourth new members from the Pac-12 in the past 13 months, perhaps to the delight of Oregon’s most famous alum, Phil Knight.
The Big Ten will be adding USC and UCLA as the 15th and 16th members of the conference in 2024. Oregon and Washington have long been the top two likely candidates for additional Big Ten expansion among Pac-12 members for the past year. The Ducks and Huskies will bring the Big Ten membership count up to 18.
And it could happen quickly. According to a report from Pete Thamel of ESPN, it is expected Oregon and Washignton will join the Big Ten in 2024.
The Big Ten recently rolled out a conference schedule lineup for 2024 and 2025 that includes USC and UCLA. But if Oregon and Washignton join the mix next year, those schedules will have to be amended already.
The Pac-12 is now set to lose three members in 2024 with USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten and Colorado making a return to the Big 12. That leaves the conference with nine members. And if Oregon and Washington do join the Big Ten in 2024, then the Pac-12 may be left for conference roadkill. Other members including Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah have been linked to continuing Big 12 rumors.
The next step is for the Big Ten membership to hold a formal vote on accepting Oregon and Washignton to join the conference. That is likely to lead to a unanimous vote in favor of the expansion move. Then the timeline for the addition of the Ducks and Huskies will have to be confirmed. Once that business is taken care of, then we can worry about what this all means for the new Big Ten scheduling format.
And what will this all mean for Penn State, who benefitted in some ways with the new format without being locked to a specific permanent rival and had the most Big Ten scheduling flexibility?
For what it is worth, Penn State is 3-0 all-time against Washington in football, including the most recent meeting in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl. Penn State is 3-1 all-time against Oregon with the most recent meeting coming in the 1995 Rose Bowl at the end of the 1994 season.
This is an exciting time for the Big Ten, but not without plenty of questions to be addressed moving forward.
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