Ohio State Football: Kevin Warren says expansion will happen as necessary

The Ohio State football team will have new conference opponents in 2024 once USC and UCLA join the Big Ten Conference. There has been a lot of speculation as to what will happen with conference expansion and if the Big Ten will continue to pursue other programs.

Speaking today at Big Ten media day, Kevin Warren said that while the Big Ten is comfortable where they are at in terms of member institutions, they will expand if “it’s for the right reasons at the right time”. So that leaves the door open for future members of the conference.

It doesn’t sound like adding any new teams soon is likely based on that comment, but we know that the conference has already had talks with Notre Dame. They clearly still haven’t made a decision on whether or not they will join any conference let alone the Big Ten.

I do think the conference is looking at bringing in other programs. I also believe Warren when he says the conference is comfortable with where they are at now. 14 teams make sense right now and I wouldn’t expect them to add any more unless multiple programs get involved.

At this point, I don’t think any more expansion will be announced until at least next year. It doesn’t make sense for a program to announce they are joining another conference in the future right before football season starts. Too many athletic directors are busy.

We’ll see if anything changes on that front in the weeks leading up to the start of the season, but based on these comments from the Big Ten Commissioner, I don’t think it will. Conference realignment seems to be at a standstill right now.

There will be other interesting nuggets to come out of the media days and we will bring them to you all week!