Many fans of college football may see the additions of USC and UCLA as moves decided upon by the entirety of the Big Ten Conference. They may have thought that it was a move that Kevin Warren was in charge of. They’d be wrong. The Ohio State football program made this happen.
The only person who has said anything relating to the move from inside the Big Ten is Gene Smith, who is in charge of the Ohio State football program. As Athletic Director, he’s looking to do things that are best for all of the sports that the Buckeyes have.
Adding USC and UCLA is something he deems is good for all of those sports. Ohio State is finally throwing its weight around at a good time. They did it a little bit in fighting for a football season back in 2020. They are doing it now in trying to add premier brands to the conference.
If the Big Ten is able to add Notre Dame, Smith will have a large reason to do with it. He is the most powerful athletic director in the Big Ten, as well as in the entire country. What he says holds a lot of water. He’s one of the top three or four most powerful people in college football.
If you don’t like the addition of the two Pac 12 schools into the Big Ten, you can’t fully blame Ohio State for it. Other programs certainly wanted them to join as well. But Smith was definitely the driving force behind these additions, working behind the scenes.
We should be hearing by the end of the month if more programs start moving around conferences. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more schools join the Big Ten by then either.
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