Tony Petitti Says Big Ten Sticking With 18 Teams, 20-Game Men's Basketball Schedule

Big Ten conference commissioner Tony Petitti spoke Thursday at Big Ten Media Days about the possibility of expanding past 18 teams and whether the men's basketball conference schedule will move off its 20-game model.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. / Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten is in its first season with 18 teams, and commissioner Tony Petitti said Thursday at Big Ten Media Days that the conference is sticking with that number for the time being.

“Right now, I could tell you there’s no discussions about [expansion past 18] at all," Petitti said. "I think we feel really good about where we are. We've had a lot of work to do to get it right because, as you know, it's not just getting it right for football and men's basketball, women's basketball. It’s everything else that we do across the 28 championships that we're staging. We need to make sure that we're getting that right, so I think that's where the focus has been."

The Big Ten went from 14 to 18 teams this offseason as it expanded the conference with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. Despite these additions, Petitti said Thursday that the conference does not plan to increase the 20-game Big Ten men's basketball schedule. That means teams will play everyone once and three teams at home and on the road.

"I think the fact that we're playing everybody is really important, so that's the first tenet, play everybody," Petitti said. "Then we have the three games where you play somebody the second time. I think geography and historic rivalries are a big part of those second matchups. So just like we did in football, we try -- there are certain things you want to preserve that are important to our fans. You don't want those to go away when you get bigger. I think we've done a good job of doing that. The other thing you have to do is connect everybody, play everybody. That was the overall goal. When you get into the second things of who you are going to play twice, rivalries, geography, travel, all those got into you consideration."

On the football side, Oregon is one of five undefeated Big Ten teams, including conference wins over UCLA and Michigan State. USC is off to a 3-1 start and moved to spots to No. 11 in the latest AP Top 25 poll.

Washington is 3-2 and most recently lost 21-18 at Rutgers in its second Big Ten game, following a 24-5 win over Northwestern. UCLA's transition to a new conference has been the least favorable so far, beginning the football season 1-3 with Big Ten losses to Indiana and Oregon.

In the unofficial Big Ten basketball media poll, UCLA leads the newcomers after being picked third, followed by Oregon, picked sixth. The voters expect a challenging first year in the Big Ten for USC, which was picked 14th, and Washington, coming in at 15th.

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