ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Big Ten is now the Big 18 after adding Oregon and Washington on top of USC and UCLA to create another mega conference, which gutted the Pac-12 and eliminated a Power-5 conference from the sport.
The moves helped ensure the conference stays among the top dogs after the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and the Big 12 responded by adding Houston, BYU, Cincinnati, and Central Florida for 2023-24 and then Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah for 2024 and onward.
So, after the dust settled on what was a wild weekend in college athletics, Locked on Big 10 host Craig Shemon started looking ahead to what might be next for the conference, including whether they will try to get up to 20 schools.
"I think it was important to note they did not invite Cal and Stanford to join everybody else out west," Shemon said. "I think it's very important the Big Ten stopped at 18, leaving a couple spots open, not giving it to Cal or Stanford, because the Big Ten thinks it can do better."
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In this case, doing better is likely waiting to see if either Florida State or Clemson will make their way out of the ACC, where the Big Ten could snag key media markets away from the SEC while continuing to grow their conference's media footprint across the entire country.
Both programs have expressed displeasure with the current deal in the ACC, but unless they can successfully get out from under the conference's grant of rights they will have a hard time realigning in the near future.
Still, it is telling the Big Ten decided to leave Cal and Stanford out to dry, and while it looks like 18 is the final number for now it wouldn't be a shock to see that changing once again as realignment continues to be a never-ending saga in college athletics.