There are officially no limits on schools that can be considered expansion candidates for the Big Ten after extending invitations to join to USC and UCLA. With the Big Ten set to welcome the two iconic Pac-12 programs in 2024, the future of the Big Ten has never looked more open and there are so many directions the Big Ten could go next.
The Big Ten has made it a point to focus on schools that are members of the Association of American Universities when exploring potential expansion candidates. USC and UCLA are each members of the AAU, for example. But membership in the AAU is not necessarily a major deal-breaker, as is the case for Nebraska. Nebraska was voted into the conference when it was an AAU member, but the school lost its AAU affiliation months after heading to the Big Ten.
There are a number of AAU members not included in this list as they are current members or future members of the SEC. Of all the conferences out there, the SEC is likely the one conference that stands the least chance of having a school leave for another conference. The SEC is home to AAU members Florida, Missouri, and Texas A&M and Texas will soon join them.
This list of potential expansion targets for the Big Ten is based off the current membership of the AAU with one very notable exception. We may as well get that exception out of the way right now…