Would Big Ten Ever Kick a Team Out of its Conference?

Stanford, Cal and SMU are joining the ACC in 2024. It's perhaps the most illogical and bizarre move in this wave of college football realignment. With so many teams set to have new homes in 2024, it begs the question — would the Big Ten ever kick out one of its lower tier squads?

Daniel Olinger | Sep 4, 2023

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The announcement Friday that Stanford, Cal and SMU are headed to the ACC in 2024 is perhaps the most bizarre realignment news to date.

It's another nail in the coffin of the Pac-12. College football continues to get stranger, and more questions are being raised about who will be left out of the sport's top tier when the shuffling finally ends.

The latest casualties are Oregon State and Washington State, who are the only Pac-12 schools left without a new home. It feels fundamentally unfair and more than a bit sad. Though neither is a football powerhouse, they're far from the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality. Oregon State finished last season 10-3, and Washington State has produced a winning record in six of its last eight seasons.

Breaking: ACC Presidents and Chancellors have voted to extend invitations to SMU, Cal and Stanford to push the league to 18 teams, sources told @PeteThamel. pic.twitter.com/nmS9yJBhFX
— ESPN (@espn) September 1, 2023

But there may come a time as the football super powers continue to consolidate that some schools are not just left behind, the victims of unfair circumstances and financial greed. Some could be told to leave if the super conferences decide they are unneeded baggage and not contributing enough in prestige and cash.

It is not unprecedented. Temple joined the Big East on the gridiron in 1991, and went on to post a wretched 30-126 overall record during their 14 seasons in the conference. Temple was voted out on the conference in 2001 due to its poor performance and lacking attendance, though that didn't go into effect until the 2004 season.

The Big East essentially looked Temple in the eye and said the following — you are a free loader, and you need to leave.

Temple football's season records from 1991-2004, via CFB Reference.

Temple getting kicked out of Big East is quite literally the most notable thing the Owls' football program has ever "accomplished." Every other conference realignment in college football history has almost exclusively been the promotion of a school.

The Big 12's recent additions of so many new schools might be viewed more like a defense mechanism than as anything else. Throw more schools in your league, and your can protect yourself from what just happened to the Pac-12.

That's is also what the ACC is doing. Do Stanford, Cal and SMU make any sense as ACC schools in the slightest? No. Do they really bring enough money from football to make a big difference? No. But do they help the ACC reach the same number of teams the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 are set to have in 2024? Yes, yes and yes.

Adding as many schools as possible to insulate your conference against extinction makes sense right now. But what about several years from now? What if the powerhouse schools get tired of having share revenue with schools that they might call "free loaders"?

What happens if these conferences decide it's time to give a few more schools the Temple treatment?

Let's continue down that rabbit hole with the Big Ten, starting with the obvious one:

Would the Big Ten Ever Kick Indiana Out?

Given that the Hoosiers hold the "record" for most losses in the history of the sport, they always come up in these kinds of conversations.

That sorry record is why Indiana fans fear this conversation. If teams would start getting kicked out to create the college football super league, why would the eternal Big Ten doormat not get the boot?

In reality, it's unlikely Indiana would get kicked out. At least, they wouldn't be the first school to get kicked out of the Big Ten.

There are a few factors in the Hoosiers' favor that should keep their place secure:

1. History. That may ring hollow in 2023, but the conference would not be enthusiastic about removing one of the original 10 schools. In location, culture and identity, Indiana is as Big Ten as it gets.

2. Basketball. Yes, college football and the money it brings in are the only factors that matter to administrators making all of these conference changes. If they cared about the well-being of student-athletes and other collegiate sports, these moves would not be happening. But basketball is the one sport that brings in enough cash to not be so easily brushed aside. Indiana has the same thing going for it here that Duke has in the ACC. The Hoosiers are the Big Ten's flagship basketball program, even if they have been less successful in recent decades. If you kick out Indiana, you are admitting you do not care at all about basketball, and most Big Ten fans and power brokers care plenty about the sport.

3. Size, academic reputation of school. Indiana is regularly in the top 30 in the country in enrollment, with more than 40,000 students. This is not some random, tiny institution that never should have been in a major conference. It's a flagship state school, and it is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities like all other current Big Ten schools except Nebraska -- which was kicked out more than a decade ago and is trying to get re-admitted. Even though Indiana football has disappointed, the school is a national brand with a huge alumni network.

Other Big Ten schools which could be more likely to get the boot:

Northwestern

My alma mater's status has gotten shaker given the football hazing scandal that has unfolded in Evanston this summer.

Northwestern brings the same dreadful losing history on the football field as Indiana but few of the other benefits. The men's basketball program just had its best season ever, but Northwestern basketball is still a lost endeavor historically. While it ranks higher academically than Indiana, Northwestern's whole schtick is that it's a private school in the Big Ten with an enrollment far below that of its peers.

NU does have that same charter history that Indiana brings, though. It's been around for more than a century, and the Big Ten loves reminding everyone about the academic achievements of its members.

Northwestern would be the more likely candidate to get kicked out of the Big Ten in the next decade or so. But, they are not the most likely candidate.

Rutgers

I do not hope any of these schools get kicked out of the Big Ten. What's happened to Oregon State and Washington State, as well as to other schools that are now in mismatched conferences just for survival, stinks. But the "sanctity of tradition" in the sport doesn't matter, apparently. What is to stop administrators from gerrymandering a new super league with the 30 best football teams in college football at the expense of everyone else?

Yes, Rutgers is the most likely candidate to be tossed out of the Big Ten. The Scarlet Knights are not good at football. Historically, basketball has also been a struggle. They were famously added in 2014 to "extend the Big Ten to the New York market," which sounds funnier each time it's said.

Rutgers is a fairly large school. But there is just not enough athletic success and history within the conference. Rutgers was in the Big East with Temple, and they could face a similar fate if the Big Ten one day decides to embrace addition by subtraction.

Would the Big Ten Ever Kick Indiana Out?

Northwestern

Rutgers

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