The upcoming schedule for Wisconsin Football looks far different from previous years, and much more exciting. The PAC-12 has completely collapsed, with 10 of the 12 teams leaving by August of 2024. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington have all joined the Big Ten conference and will begin competing against Wisconsin’s athletic teams this year. In the 2024-2025 football season, the Badgers will face the USC Trojans and the Oregon Ducks, two of the new teams in the conference. While many fans are wary of the Big Ten’s expansion — it now has 18 teams — the growth of the conference has far more pros than cons.
First and foremost, the expansion of the Big Ten will lead to new rivalries and historic teams facing off far more often. UCLA and Wisconsin clashed in the Rose Bowl twice during the 90s, but what seemed to be a passionate and tense rivalry was ultimately extinguished by the fact that the two teams were not in the same conference.
After the two Rose Bowl matchups in the 90s – both narrow Badger victories – the two teams met once more in 2000 and have not played each other since. The four teams joining the Big Ten will bring new competition and create rivalries, which will be good for the athletes, the fans, the teams and the growth of the conference.
In addition to new rivalries arriving with the expansion of the conference, the conference’s greater geographic range will also allow teams to access new pools of talent. Entrance into the Big Ten has already enabled USC to sign more recruits from the Midwest, according to head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Playing the schedule that we’re gonna play now, I think it opens you up in some regions. In the last year, we’ve signed kids from Minnesota, we signed kids from Michigan. You can already feel the interest in [the recruits] before this officially starts,” Riley said during a July interview.
By playing in new areas of the country, all of the Big Ten schools will have a greater reach and will be able to cast a larger net when they are recruiting. While recruitment from the Midwest has opened up for the West Coast teams moving into the conference, recruitment in the West has opened up for the original Big Ten teams that never had a reason to travel to the West Coast.
In addition to new rivalries and better recruiting, the expansion of the Big Ten could increase revenue in the conference. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the Big Ten reported the highest revenue out of any of the conferences with $879.9 million. By bringing in four historic and talented programs, it is likely that the conference’s revenue stream will only continue to increase. The money earned by the conference is split up between the various universities, and the more that the conference makes, the more each individual school and team are able to expand and grow.
In the last few years, NIL deals, endorsements and sponsorships have taken the world of college sports by storm. For many athletes, where they could make the most money became a large factor that determined where they would go to college. Arch Manning — yes, he is the nephew of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Eli and Peyton — is currently attending the University of Texas in the SEC, and has an NIL valuation of $3.1 million.
What is so shocking about his NIL valuation, is that Manning isn’t even the starting quarterback for the Longhorns. But just playing for a large market team in a big conference allows players to make serious money even if they hardly play. Therefore, a larger conference brings in more fans, more revenue and more opportunities for players. As the Big Ten continues to grow both in size and revenue, athletes already in the conference will gain greater exposure and be able to secure more NIL deals, while the lucrative opportunities will attract recruits to sign for Big Ten teams.
That is not to say that the expansion is without its drawbacks. Travel time for teams and athletes will increase significantly, as the Big Ten teams will have to travel much farther than previously. The Wisconsin Football team will travel 6,245.9 miles during the 2024-2025 season, but other teams will go further. UCLA’s football team will travel over 22,000 miles and cross 26 time zones to play all of their games this season. It will make life more difficult for student-athletes, with more trips and longer travel times. Also, the addition of four new teams makes scheduling even more confusing and difficult. The Big Ten must figure out how to protect rivalries while also ensuring that all of the teams in the conference are able to play each other at some point.
While there is no denying that Big Ten expansion is not perfect, the expansion of the conference has far more pros than cons. New rivalries and competition, expanded recruiting, increased revenue and new NIL opportunities will all result from the expansion of the conference.
