Getty Image / Mitchell Layton
The Big Ten is just a year away from a massive change coming to the conference.
In 2024, USC and UCLA will be ditching the Pac-12 to join the Big 10.
While that is already a huge change for the conference, especially with how strong USC was last season and is expected to be next season.
However, they may not actually be done bringing in new teams.
There have been rumors swirling for a while about the conference bringing in some other teams, including a couple from the Pac-12. One of those teams was even reported to have been the conference’s preferred option over UCLA.
According to a new report, they have actually vetted 10 different schools as potential expansion candidates.
Jim Williams reported that those 10 teams are Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Georgia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Utah, and Miami.
Here are a list of the schools that have been vetted by the @bigten for possible future members.
This is not in order of value just they are just they way I wrote them down.
Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Georgia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Utah, and Miami. It…— Jim Williams (@JWMediaDC) June 4, 2023
All of the teams on the western half of the country have the obvious benefit of being matchups for USC and UCLA that wouldn’t require them to travel across the country.
The list also includes some strong football programs with Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Miami and some basketball powerhouses in Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia.
The Big Ten doing their due diligence on all of these schools doesn’t mean that there is any kind of a move imminently on the way, but it’s clear that they are still interested in continuing to grow.
Maybe some time soon we’ll see the Big Ten add a few more teams to turn themselves into the biggest conference in college sports.