Ohio State football: Big Ten talking with Oregon about expansion

We know that the Ohio State football program will have two new opponents to play in 2024 once USC and UCLA join the fray. We also know that Kevin Warren wants to keep expanding the Big Ten. What we don’t know is what teams could join the conference to make that expansion continue.

Oregon has long been rumored to be interested in joining the Big Ten once the USC/UCLA news dropped. Now according to Brett McMurphy of the Action Network, Oregon is having preliminary discussions about whether or not they would be right for the Big Ten Conference.

Adding Oregon would give the Big Ten another strong college football brand in the conference. It would also give them some Pacific Northwest eyeballs on TV, which is valuable to them as well. Having the prominent Nike school in the country wouldn’t hurt either.

If the Big Ten is talking with Oregon about expansion, that means they are talking to other schools too. They would need to at least add one more school. Stanford and Washington have been two other schools that have been linked to the Big Ten as well.

Notre Dame is still the school that the Big Ten would like to grab the most. But the Big Ten isn’t going to wait on them. They will keep having discussions with other schools that can further the expansion. I know they definitely want to add a few more Pac-12 teams to help with travel issues with USC and UCLA.

Nothing imminent is going to happen though. These are just preliminary discussions that are going on, and Kevin Warren wasn’t even involved in those discussions. This is the first step in making something happen though, so it’s something to keep an eye on.

At this point, I would be surprised if Oregon doesn’t eventually join the Big Ten. It just seems destined to happen.