The Big Ten is about to become the Big Eighteen.
A little over 13 months after striking a deal with USC and UCLA to join the conference, the Big Ten is adding two more West Coast schools as Oregon and Washington are officially leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten, becoming the 17th and 18th members of the league.
The Big Ten announced the addition of both schools on Friday evening. The two schools will join the conference on Aug. 2, 2024.
"We are excited to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in a statement. “We look forward to building longlasting relationships with the universities, administrators and staff, student-athletes, coaches and fans. Both institutions feature a combination of academic and athletic excellence that will prove a great fit for our future."
The Big Ten will remain at 14 teams for the 2023-24 academic year before USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington all join the conference ahead of the 2024-25 season.
The conference switch for Washington and Oregon comes after Pac-12 schools failed to come to an agreement on a grant of rights deal with the conference this week. After months of media rights negotiations, the conference was only able to secure a streaming-centric deal with Apple that would have paid Pac-12 schools significantly less money than their Big Ten and SEC counterparts.
Washington and Oregon will reportedly receive only $30 million each in Big Ten revenue distribution during their first year in the conference, with that number growing by $1 million each year through the length of the Big Ten’s current media rights deal. By comparison, the other Big Ten schools are expected to make approximately $70 million per year off the Big Ten’s new media rights deal.
Oregon and Washington will receive full revenue shares from the conference when the Big Ten’s next media rights deal goes into effect before the 2030-31 season, according to The Inside Zone’s Matt Fortuna.
Source: Oregon's and Washington's annual cut of the Big Ten's revenue distribution is expected to start at $30M and grow by $1M each year through the length of the current deal. They will receive full shares upon the next TV deal, in 2030-31.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) August 4, 2023
They can borrow off future earnings.
As recently as last week, Big Ten leaders were saying publicly that they were not expecting to explore further expansion this year. During his press conference at last week’s Big Ten Media Days, commissioner Tony Petitti said Big Ten presidents and athletic directors instructed him to focus on integrating USC and UCLA into the league rather than on adding more teams into the conference.
That all began to change this week, however, after the Pac-12 presented its media rights options to its member schools. The Big Ten reportedly had conversations about bringing in as many as four Pac-12 schools, also including Cal and Stanford, before deciding Thursday to focus on Oregon and Washington as expansion targets.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who previously told Eleven Warriors in June that he did not expect the Big Ten to expand further this year, praised the additions of Oregon and Washington on Friday evening.
Two additional west coast teams will assist with the integration of USC and UCLA, and provide additional opportunities for our student-athletes to compete in front of Buckeye alumni and fans from coast to coast.
— Gene Smith (@OSU_AD) August 4, 2023
It is not yet clear how exactly the Big Ten’s new football scheduling model will be adjusted to incorporate the Ducks and Huskies. While each team’s opponents for the 2024 and 2025 seasons were previously announced in June, the addition of two new teams to the conference will force changes to those schedules, though ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported that the model will not be changed entirely.
The Big Ten won't be starting from scratch on new 2024-25 football schedules, I'm told. The base of what was announced, including preserving the most important games and maintaining frequency of matchups, will remain. Some adjustments needed to make 18 teams work. https://t.co/mLZ3EUph3Q
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) August 4, 2023
Ohio State had been scheduled to play Washington in a non-conference home-and-home series in 2024 and 2025 until that series was canceled this year. It was also scheduled to play a home-and-home series with Oregon in 2032 and 2033. Now, however, the Buckeyes will play both the Ducks and Huskies on a regular basis in conference games.
The Buckeyes have an all-time record of 9-1 against Oregon on the football field, highlighted by their national championship game win in the first-ever College Football Playoff to conclude the 2014 season. The Ducks’ only win over the Buckeyes came in the most recent meeting between the two schools in 2021, when Oregon defeated Ohio State 35-28 in Ohio Stadium.
Ohio State has a 9-3 all-time record in football against Washington, including wins in the last four meetings between the two sides. The Buckeyes earned a 28-23 win over the Huskies in their most recent meeting, which took place in the 2019 Rose Bowl, Urban Meyer’s final game as Ohio State’s coach.
Welcome @oregonfootball & @UW_Football to the @B1Gfootball pic.twitter.com/cXnAudKdpi
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 4, 2023
