Tag: Big Ten Expansion

Cal and Stanford remain expansion free agents as ACC stalls on potential expansion talks

The ACC has reportedly hit some snags on adding Cal and Stanford. Will the Big Ten swoop in and grab them?

If the Big Ten has an eye on one more possible expansion to the west coast, then the news out of the ACC could be worth noting. According to multiple reports, the ACC’s discussions on exploring the potential additions of Cal and Stanford have hit a bit of a rough patch as the conference fails to collectively agree on the value of adding two of the four remaining schools from the Pac-12.

While Cal and Stanford would be great academic additions to the ACC, and the Olympic sports power that would be added with the two schools is unquestioned, the financial boost that would be generated is not nearly attractive enough to enough schools currently in the ACC to move the process any further.

According to a report from ESPN, one school that has been pushing hard for the additions of Cal and Stanford has been Notre Dame. While the Irish are a football independent and showing no signs of being ready to abandon that, Notre Dame is a member of the ACC in all other sports (except for ice hockey, where they are a Big Ten member). The same report suggests Notre Dame’s vote has been scrutinized because of its football independence.

“But multiple athletic directors have questioned why anyone in the league would listen to Notre Dame because the Irish remain so steadfast in remaining independent,” ESPN reports.

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Reading deeper into the ESPN report seems to suggest the ACC is exploring this potential expansion move almost for the sake of expansion to keep up in the numbers race. And that is probably not the most convincing reason to expand.

The ACC also has a deadline approaching for schools to inform the conference of any intent to leave the conference. That deadline is Tuesday, Aug. 15. Florida State has been the most vocal about their uncertainty of the long-term sustainability as a member of the ACC. So if the Big Ten is looking to get to 20 members, the next few days could be wildly entertaining.

If Cal and Stanford are not going to be invited to join the ACC, then the Big Ten could still be the most logical landing spot for the two schools. The Big Ten is already adding USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington in 2024. The additions of Cal and Stanford would not move the needle much more on the football side of things, but there does not seem to be a better landing spot for the two Pac-12 schools than the Big Ten.

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Who’s next for the Big Ten? Ranking schools the league may consider if expansion continues

If the Big Ten were to continue expanding, who would they most likely consider adding to the league?

Who’s next for the Big Ten?

That’s the million (well, billion) dollar question after the Big Ten and Big 12 made splashes last week in conference realignment. The Big Ten added Oregon and Washington, while the Big 12 has added Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado in the past few weeks. These moves have left the Pac-12 down to just four schools (Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State) and have once again shifted the landscape of college athletics — most notably football.

But are is the Big Ten done? The league will be up to 18 schools next fall with the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, and many are speculating whether or not the conference will look to further expand or stay at 18.

I personally believe the conference will at least reach 20 schools so that means it’s time to take a look at who could be those two (or maybe more) schools for the Big Ten. Check out my rankings below for who I believe the Big Ten will consider if further expansion is in the cards for the league:

Power ranking all 18 Big Ten football programs after latest expansion news

It was a hard task, but we took a stab at it. #B1G

Not all college football programs are created equal. We are perhaps, reminded of that even more with the latest round of league expansion.

The richest and most powerful programs are gobbled up to enhance other leagues’ pedigrees. Others are left in a cruel game of musical chairs in which teams will most likely be left without a seat at the big boy table.

Right now, it’s the Big Ten, SEC and, to a lesser extent, the Big 12, doing the hunting and consumption of programs looking for a better and sweeter deal. ACC, you are on the clock. So much so, that after the latest news of Oregon and Washington joining UCLA and USC in the Big Ten, the Pac-12 is most likely going the way of the rotary phone save for Bruce Willis hopping on an asteroid and saving the presumed crash, burn and annihilation of the conference, which is left with just four members.

Even within the Big Ten, the most prestigious cash cows are pulling some in the rear. Now that the conference is set to have 18 members battling from coast-to-coast, and sea to shining microplastic-riddled warming sea, we thought we’d rank each Big Ten football program based on its value to the league.

We count down from 18, all the way to No. 1 in our Big Ten football program ranking.

Reports say ACC, not the Big Ten, reviewing possible additions of Cal and Stanford

Reports say the ACC, not the Big Ten, could be thinking about adding Cal and Stanford.

If the most logical place for Pac-12 leftovers Cal and Stanford was supposed to be the Big Ten, then the ACC may be trying to proactively fly in to scoop up the Bears and Cardinal before the Big Ten has a chance. The Associated Press has reported the ACC is reviewing the possibility of adding Cal and Stanford to the conference.

Cal and Stanford are the two most attractive expansion candidates from the four remaining Pac-12 members. Academically, the two schools would be good fits for the Big Ten and ACC. Geographically, the Big Ten would now make more sense compared to the ACC if only because the Big Ten is about to have four west coast members in 2024, alleviating a good amount of travel expense concerns for a school like Stanford in particular.

The Big Ten will be adding USC, UCLA, Orgeon, and Washington in 2024. At the same time, the Big 12 will welcome Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah to the conference.

According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, the next 24 hours could be very interesting for the possible expansion of the ACC to include Cal and Stanford.

The Big Ten may not be done with expansion just yet, but Cal and Stanford figured to at least be on the radar for any future move by the conference. But if the last two California schools from the Pac-12’s remains do end up aligning with the ACC, that would seem to bring any possible Big Ten expansion to a halt, for now.

There is still an eye on the developments with Florida State, which has made it clear it would not blink twice leaving the ACC if it was deemed beneficial and necessary. And if Florida state left, and the Big Ten was the landing spot, the Big Ten would likely add at least one more member to get to an even 20 members. North Carolina and Virginia have been thought of as potential targets before. And, of course, there is always Notre Dame sitting out there.

Whatever the fate is for Cal and Stanford, there is still a question of what happens to Oregon State and Washignton State, the other two leftovers in the Pac-12 following the devastating expansion blows dealt by the Big Ten and Big 12 last week.

According to the same AP report, the American Athletic Conference has expressed an interest in adding all four schools to its membership. The AAC is not the only Group of Five conference investigating the Pac-12 schools still without a home. The Mountain West Conference is reportedly reviewing the possibility of adding Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washignton State.

So will Penn State be getting any more new conference foes to look forward to? We’ll wait to see how this all shakes out, because nothing is ever a done deal when it comes to conference realignment.

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RUMOR: Big Ten ‘will most likely’ move to 10 game conference schedule following recent expansion

The additions of Oregon and Washington will reportedly result in an additional Big Ten conference game on everyone’s schedule

The additions of Oregon and Washington will reportedly result in an additional Big Ten conference game on everyone’s schedule.

There is a rumor being reported by a “Michigan insider” at On3.com that the Big Ten will “most likely be moving to 10 conference games” with the additions of the Ducks and Huskies. This would also be the case should the league look to add two more teams to reach 20 total teams in the conference.

This rumor has yet to be reported by any other big-time news media outlets at this time so for now it is simply a rumor. But this rumor does make a lot of sense when you think about the size of the Big Ten and the fact that the TV networks would love additional conference games.

If the Big Ten does actually expand to 10 games — which is still not certain — then it’ll be interesting to see if that’ll occur in 2024 when USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington join the league or further down the road. It’ll result in schools having to adjust their future schedules either way but if it is in 2024, then that would mean Michigan State would have to cut one of their non-conference games against Florida Atlantic, Louisiana or Boston College.

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James Franklin on Big Ten’s latest expansion: It’s very different

James Franklin on Big Ten adding Oregon and Washington: It’s very different than the college football that we all grew up with

The Big Ten will be welcoming Oregon and Washignton in addition to USC and UCLA as conference members in 2024, bringing the total membership up to 18 members. The news of the latest expansion move by the Big Ten has received plenty of attention and reaction in the days since the news dropped from the conference, and Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] shared his thoughts on the move at his Penn State football media day press conference on Sunday.

While Franklin continues to keep his focus on what is directly in front of his team, stating he is only worried about the upcoming season for now and the season opener at home against West Virginia, he did share some thoughts about the state of the game with conference realignment going haywire.

“I do think, obviously, with what you see that’s going on in college football right now, it’s not shocking that these things are kind of happening,” Franklin said. “It’s somewhat sad in some ways, not that these people are being added to our conference because I think obviously there’s a lot of strategy that goes into that.”

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“But you know, I do think there’s some challenges that come along with it and it’s just very different for most of the people in this room, it’s very different than the college football that we all grew up with,” Franklin went on to say. “[Not] really college football, college athletics, where at least for most of the year it was pretty regional.”

The Big Ten is still a mostly midwestern conference even after adding Maryland and Rutgers in its most recent expansion move prior to the upcoming changes in 2024. The additions of USC and UCLA took the Big Ten to the west coast, with a massive geographic gap between the Los Angeles-based schools and the next closest Big Ten member, Nebraska. If nothing else, at least Franklin feels the additions of Oregon and Washington will be good for those two schools.

“I do think it’s a huge win for USC and UCLA from a travel perspective,” Franklin said. “I think it’s a huge win for them.”

The door for additional Big Ten expansion is not necessarily closed either. Cal and Stanford are two of the four remaining Pac-12 members left stranded without a conference home, and the Big Ten would be considered a logical landing spot if the Big Ten was interested in additional California schools. Florida State is kicking up some dust on a potential exit from the ACC and could consider making a push for a spot in the Big Ten with the conference potentially in a spot to add two more schools to get to 20 members.

If Florida State does work its way out of the conference and the Big Ten is not the destination, a weakened ACC could have potential Big Ten targets in North Carolina and Virginia. And, of course, the obligatory mention of Notre Dame has to be included as well. While the Irish may show no signs of being ready to abandon its football independence, we could be getting closer to a potential breaking point that causes the school’s leadership to reevaluate its stance on football independence. And if the ACC cracks, the Irish could work a way out of its contractual requirement to join the conference in football if it does step away from its independence. A Big Ten with all of Notre Dame’s traditional rivals would potentially be attractive, as would the Big Ten revenue shares.

But we’ll see what this week brings in conference realignment news, if anything, after a turbulent week last week.

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LSJ columnist Graham Couch explains how the Big Ten has become a ‘bully’ through recent expansion

The college football landscape is shifting again — and the Big Ten is mostly to blame

The college football landscape is shifting again — and the Big Ten is mostly to blame.

The Big Ten added two more Pac-12 teams this past week with the additions of Oregon and Washington on Friday. The Huskies and Ducks will join USC and UCLA in entering the Big Ten in 2024. Also on Friday, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah announced they’d be leaving the league to join the Big 12 — leaving the once proud and rich Pac-12 with just four teams: Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State.

So it’s fair to say the Big Ten is a bully that resulted in the death of the Pac-12, right? Well, that’s the thought from Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal — to which I agree.

Click on the tweet below to read the complete column from Couch on how the Big Ten has become a bully that helped complete the downfall of the Pac-12:

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on Twitter @RobertBondy5.

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Ranking each Big Ten team based on current state, long-term success in expanded league

See where Michigan State football stands amongst its peers when the league expands to 18 teams in 2024

The Big Ten grew this past week by adding a pair of premier college football programs in Oregon and Washington.

With the additions of the Ducks and Huskies, the Big Ten will now be 18 teams starting in 2024. They’ll enter the league at the same time as USC and UCLA.

With there being plenty of excitement and talk around the new-looking Big Ten, I took a stab at power ranking the 18 teams based on the current state and long-term success within the newly expanded conference. These rankings are not only taking into effect how I envision the programs looking this upcoming season but also how I project they could finish in the first few years in the expanded league.

See where I slate Michigan State amongst the new Big Ten field below:

Ranking 2024 Big Ten stadiums by capacity

Ranking Big Ten football stadiums by capacity following its 2024 expansion with USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington.

The Big Ten has always been home to some of the nation’s biggest college football stadiums and many of the oldest in the nation. That is not about to change with the upcoming expansion of the conference. The Big Ten will add USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington to the conference in 2024 and with it will add two storied college football venues and two of the loudest and most electric stadiums on the west coast.

But how will the stadium capacities of the Big Ten look once the four new members join the conference? While the top of the stadium capacity list will remain unchanged, there will be a few changes to the attendance pecking order in the Big Ten.

Going off the official attendance capacity numbers on record, here is an updated look at the Big Ten football stadium capacity from smallest to largest once USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington join the Big Ten in 2024.

Oregon, Washington to officially join Big Ten in 2024

The Big Ten is getting even bigger with the additions of Oregon and Washington now official

Oregon and Washington will officially be joining the Big Ten.

On Friday evening, things became official with Oregon and Washington receiving and accepting invites to join the Big Ten conference. The Ducks and Huskies will join USC and UCLA as new members in the league in the fall of 2024.

With the expansion of Oregon and Washington, the Big Ten will now have 18 schools starting next year. There is still a possibility the league could expand further as some (including myself) believe the league will want to get to at least 20 schools.

The Pac-12 also lost Arizona, Arizona State and Utah on Friday night. Those three schools joined Colorado in leaving for the Big 12 — which now leaves the Pac-12 with only four schools: Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State.

Learn more about the additions of Oregon and Washington by watching this Big Ten Network clip below:

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on Twitter @RobertBondy5.

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