Big Ten to College Football: “Drop Dead.”

Well, it’s happening.

Per about every plugged-in reporter out there, Washington and Oregon will join the Big Ten alongside USC and UCLA in 2024-25, bloating the Big 10 11 12 14 to an unwieldy 18 teams.

How will this work, you ask?

Fuck you, stop asking questions and cash the goddamn check.

MNW: Fine for ratings, fine for competitiveness, and horrible for everything else that most of us love about college football. I don’t know what sense there is in rehashing much of this, but I have to do it so I don’t get fired.

I’m SUPER happy that Michigan and Ohio State will have a great strength of schedule to get to the college football playoff, and I feel awful for the student athletes and things that are not college football, who will be traveling ridiculous distances on unworkable schedules.

87townie: At what point does the name Big Ten become so absurd that they rename it something else? While I do like that idea that we are adding college football “blue bloods”, it does threaten traditional rivalries. And though my school doesn’t participate in one of the more storied trophy games, I have a lot of love for Floyd, the Axe, and the Hat.

I do think that adding these teams will create a different dynamic in the Big Ten. I’m willing to give it a shot.

Atinat: The Big Ten has gone from the only conference whose every member wrestles, to having a quarter of its members not wrestle, in the span of a year. I’m sure there are bigger implications than that, but that’s what sticks out to me. And it is, on some level, emblematic of the change coming to the Big Ten and conferences as whole: that they are losing regional and cultural identity in pursuit of larger TV deals.

We’ll see more cool Ducks unis though!

RockyMtnBlue: This is stupid and terrible and I hate it. At some point it stops feeling like a conference and instead it feels like we’re all independents. I hope I’m proven wrong but I suspect this wild, nation-wide expansion coupled with the playoff will end my college fandom.

BuffKomodo: See, what’s going to happen is the B1G is going to get at least 2 more teams. Then they’ll have the perfect size.

What you can do is take the league with 20 teams and split it in half. Take those two halves, run their schedules, and at the end of the year you can have the top two teams from each half and play in a championship game. That champion gets to go to the CFP and the loser, if their record is good enough, can go to the CFP too OR they can play in the Rose Bowl if it’s happening that year.

You could even name the halves of the league. The side on the western part of the divide can be name the Money side and the eastern side can be named Rules! It’s perfect!

lincolnparkwildcat: What the flying fuck. Someone needs to restrain our university presidents and the TV providers.

Autzen Stadium has always been on my bucket list, and I had a nice time traveling to Seattle for a tech conference, but I really think this is getting out of hand. I mean, flying from Eugene to Piscataway for a conference game?

Or, playing devils advocate, fuck it: let’s add Cal and Stanford too and cap it at 20

Creighton: On one hand I think the expansion is annoying and probably negative for the fan experience (and absolutely negative for non-revenue sports). On the other hand though it comes with some positives:

• Having an excuse to go to random away days at like Eugene or LA that I normally wouldn’t have a reason to go to
• The hilarious visuals of getting to watch stuff like UCLA players and coaches in absolute hell as they lose a game 9-14 in Madison on a frigid November night. USC fans looking on in horror as an Iowa fan in overalls chugs half a bag of Franzia in the parking lot with a turkey leg in one hand and a Busch Light in the other. Things of that nature.

Expansion is dumb and I hate it like the rest of you, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be hilarious.

misdreavus79: I’ll just echo my sentiments from before. I’ve only been in the country long enough to be aware of the time people felt bad for Tom Osbourne and handed him an undeserved national championship. I didn’t even have a rooting interest until nearly a decade later. So to me, “conference realignment” in and of itself is the tradition. That’s been the thing I’ve experienced the most.

And that’s just it, isn’t it? The traditions we want to uphold are really just whatever we grew up with. No one is pining for Tulane to go back to the SEC, or for the Big Ten to kick Michigan State and Ohio State out and have UChicago come back. Or for the SWC/WAC/etc. to come back. Or for only a handful of games to be on TV. And so on.So tradition, ultimately, is relative. And as the sport changes so will viewing patterns and overall experience. And I’m here for it.

RockyMtnBlue: Wait. Was kicking Michigan State and Ohio State out, and replacing them with UChicago an option? ’Cause I’d pine like hell for that.

lincolnparkwildcat: I was perfectly fine when we had 12 members. Has adding Rutgers and Maryland really done anything for us tv wise? Sorry east coast bros.

WSR: There are a number of things to be excited about. I can’t wait to go to Autzen and UW for games in addition to the other recent pacific additions. And these schools should add non-awful basketball, potentially awesome hockey jerseys, and good Volleyball (I REALLY WANT TO BE THERE THE FIRST TIME MINNESOTA GOES TO WASHINGTON).

But man, there are some logistical nightmares coming up. Unless we have pods for stuff like softball, there’s gonna be some explaining to do.

He was a high school QB: Yes, add two more teams and then split into two divisions. One called the Big Ten with Illinois, iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Indiana, Nern, wisconsin, Michigan, MSU, and OSU. The other division can be called the Teams I don’t give a shit about.

MaximumSam: If I’m being honest, I enjoy the Pacific Northwest and I’d rather see OSU play Washington than Illinois. There, I said it.

WSR: Do we really even need an Indiana?

MNW: And that’s really it. Ohio State and Michigan get what they need, fuck us peons. (That includes Minnesota, regardless of how WSR is coping.)

BoilerUp89: I didn’t like when we added Nebraska. I hated adding Maryland and Rutgers. USC & UCLA, I could get partially on board with because hey, how else am I going to watch Purdue play at the Rose Bowl?

Washington and Oregon though? Hard pass! Not only do they bring no interest on my side for football, but Oregon’s basketball court is a crime against humanity! They should be locked away in the G5 as punishment for subjecting the world to that abomination. Now I’m going to have to see that court at least every two years (and let’s be honest as much as I follow Big Ten basketball it will be more often than that).

This is a short-sighted move by a group of short-sighted idiots seeking to make a few more dollars for the executives. As usual, the workers and customers are screwed over in the name of profit.

Sound off in the comments, if you choose.