Big Ten adding Washington, Oregon next year, growing to 18 teams

The Big Ten is getting even bigger.

Both Washington and Oregon are headed to the Big Ten, sounding the death knell for the conference's Rose Bowl rival, the Pac-12.

On Friday night, the Big Ten officially announced the additions of the institutions based in Seattle and Eugene, Oregon, for all sports, beginning in the 2024-25 academic year. According to a statement released by the Big Ten on Friday night, both Oregon and Washington applied to join the conference on Friday and the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors unanimously approved both applications.

The Big Ten is also adding Los Angeles-based schools USC and UCLA on Aug. 2, 2024.

The Big Ten presidents and chancellors reportedly gave new conference commissioner Tony Petitti permission to look deeply into expanding as recently as this week.

"When considering the full spectrum of academic, athletic and research excellence, the alignment with our member institutions is extremely clear," Illinois president Robert Jones, head of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors, said in the conference's statement. "We are excited to welcome them and look forward to collaborating and competing with them in the years ahead."

Soon after the move became official, Michigan president Santa Ono and athletics director Warde Manuel issued a statement also welcoming the Ducks and Huskies to the Big Ten: "As the conference continues to grow and expand across the country, we are pleased to confirm this decision and extend a warm welcome to our newest members, both of which are leading research universities and members of the Association of American Universities with championship-caliber athletic programs."

Michigan State did not appear to release a statement on the additions, but the athletics department's official Twitter account retweeted Big Ten Network's welcome tweet.

This football season begins long television contracts between the Big Ten and NBC, CBS and Fox, which will have prime windows on the national stage all Saturday afternoon and night, not to mention supplemental coverage on Peacock, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network for all of their other sports, too. Reports have the annual payout for Big Ten teams in the range of $65 million per school.

But, Oregon and Washington are not expected to enjoy such a payout. College sports reporter Matt Fortuna reports that Oregon and Washington will get about $30 million at the end of the 2024-25 academic year and then that total will increase by $1 million until the end of the current set of TV deals in 2030-31. From there, both school will enjoy full member shares of media revenue.

The Pac-12 is also losing Colorado to the Big 12 in 2024, too, with Arizona expected to jump as well. The conference's inability to secure a lucrative media right deals seems to be the impetus for Oregon and Washington to look elsewhere.

Longtime college sports reporter Brett McMurphy of the Action Network reports that Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, the defending Pac-12 football champion, will be leaving the conference for the Big 12 next year as well.

McMurphy reports that the Mountain West Conference is willing to take in whatever remains of the Pac-12, which appears to have shrunk to Cal, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State, at least for now. Though McMurphy also reports that the Big Ten is considering Cal and Stanford.

“We are disappointed with the recent decisions by some of our Pac-12 peers," Washington State president Kirk Schulz and athletics director Pat Chun said in a statement.

"While we had hoped that our membership would remain together, this outcome was always a possibility, and we have been working diligently to determine what is next for Washington State athletics. We’ve prepared for numerous scenarios, including our current situation. With exceptional student-athletes, a strong Cougar tradition and incredible support from our fans, donors and alumni, we will chart the best path forward together.”

Michigan State football is scheduled to play Washington in the completion of a home-and-home series on Sept. 9 in East Lansing.

Earlier this summer, the Big Ten announced the football scheduling procedure for the 16-team conference, as well as conference slates for both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but will likely have to go back to the drawing board to include the two new Pacific Northwest schools. The new football scheduling format included at least one protected rival to play every season for each school: In addition to the U-M and MSU in-state rivalry being protected, U-M's rivalry with Ohio State is also guaranteed for each season.

The conference had yet to announce scheduling plans for men's and women's basketball or any other sport.

The Big Ten is adding perhaps the four biggest brands of the Pac-12 with these new moves. USC's football tradition is arguably the strongest of any team in the Pacific time zone, and includes 25 Rose Bowl victories, while UCLA has incredible men's basketball history and some football glory days, too. Oregon, with the backing of Nike founder Phil Knight, is perhaps most known for its eccentric football uniforms, but has had great success in that sport the last 20 years. Washington shared a national title in football in 1991, but the men's basketball team has not made the Final Four since 1953. (Washington's women's basketball squad reached the Final Four in 2016.) Oregon and Washington are the only Pac-12 schools to make the College Football Playoff, with the Ducks losing to Ohio State in the national title game in the CFP's first season (2014) and the Huskies losing to Alabama in a semifinal two years later.

That four-team tournament to crown a national champion will grow to 12 teams in 2024. At that time, the SEC, which is adding Texas and Oklahoma next year, will have 16 teams, as will the Big 12, most likely. Currently, the CFP is scheduled to take the six highest-ranked conference champions as automatic qualifiers — with only conference champions eligible to host first-round games at home — and then the six highest ranked non-conference teams.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Big Ten adding Washington, Oregon, growing to 18 teams in 2024