College football expansion: Big Ten makes decision on future realignment
The story of the offseason once again has been what the next phase of college football conference realignment and league expansion could look like, with rumors flying in all directions and reports of teams wanting to make a move. Where does the Big Ten stand in the process? New conference commissioner Tony Petitti seems happy with where things are right now.
"All the direction I'm getting from leadership — our presidents and chancellors and our athletic directors — is to focus on USC and UCLA," he said in his opening remarks from the 2023 Big Ten Media Days.
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Last offseason, the Big Ten announced a bombshell decision to add USC and UCLA to the conference in one of the sport's biggest-ever realignment moves, with the two Los Angeles-based schools slated to make it official before the 2024 football season.
"We have a lot of work to do there," Petitti said of the logistics involved.
"I'm proud of the scheduling format we created in football. I think it touches on all the right things. But we have significant work to do in scheduling for our other sports, especially our Olympic sports, to come up with the best solutions."
In the months since the Big Ten's expansion move, insiders have connected the league to several West Coast programs, most notably Oregon and Washington, whose reps reportedly spoke with B1G officials informally about the realignment landscape.
But nothing official has come from any of these reputed discussions and, for the moment, it appears the major players are content where they are.
With the notable exception being the Big 12, whose commissioner has been open about his conference interested in adding more members in the future.
As for the Big Ten, Petitti added, "We have a good plan in motion. I think we'll learn from it. Like anything, there'll be tweaks and changes. But overall, that's really where we are. I'm not getting direction to do anything else other than that in terms of what the conference looks like right now."
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