I'm fascinated with how we'll reach the 24-team conferences. Last October, Ross Dellinger of Yahoo! Sports reported that the Big Ten made a list of desirable schools in 2022 for further expansion beyond UCLA and USC. Along with Oregon and Washington, those schools were:
- Arizona
- California
- Clemson
- Florida State
- Kansas
- North Carolina
- Notre Dame
- Pittsburgh
- Stanford
- Virginia
Out of that list, there are at least four sure bets to be included: Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame*, and Virginia; you could likely add Clemson to this mix as well. Those five plus one more would be 40 schools counting the Big Ten’s existing 18 member schools and the SEC’s 16.
That’s not even considering Miami and other AAU institutions that could garner consideration from the Big Ten or SEC (e.g., Arizona State, Colorado, Duke, Georgia Tech, Utah, even Virginia Tech by 2025).
I think it’s safe to say that any future Big Ten or SEC expansion will consist of a number of schools listed above… the question becomes how many and which conference they end up in? And heck, this isn’t even factoring in potential relegation among existing Big Ten/SEC members!