The Big Ten pulled out some big blocks from the bottom of the Pac-12 Jenga tower last year when the conference nabbed UCLA and USC. On Friday, it returned to knock over what was remaining of the tower. And now the Big Ten looks as ridiculous as ever, despite seemingly strengthening itself.
The Big Ten has added Oregon and Washington to the conference, which will have 18 members beginning in 2024. While most of the schools are still concentrated in the Wisconsin-Illinois-Indiana-Michigan area, there’s still Nebraska to the west and Rutgers and Maryland to the East. You can tell by looking at a map that those schools were later additions to the conference.
But now the map looks even more ridiculous, as you now have Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Northwest, and UCLA and USC in Southern California.
Let me just say it: That map looks really ridiculous. How can those schools possibly form a conference? It makes no sense, and it’s really unfortunate that things got to this point in college athletics.
At some point maybe things will change back and college sports will become more regional like they used to be. But that doesn’t look like it will be happening for several years, quite unfortunately.
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