BIG 10 Expanding to 18 Teams

As of the 2024 fall football season, the Big 10 Conference spans from coast to coast.  Originally, four of those teams were in the Pac 12 Conference. Last year was the final time the Big 10 had only 14 teams. The four new universities are Washington, Oregon, California Los Angeles (UCLA), and Southern California (USC). Although the Big 10 originally was a Midwest regional conference, it has been expanding outside of the Midwest since the early 1990s and beyond of late. The Big 10 had more teams added to the conference for a money standpoint. In past years the Big 10 has added teams not just for money but for the standing point.

Here in Champaign, Illinois, you are hard-pressed to find a football fan who doesn’t have an opinion on the new additions to the Big 10. Champaign Central High School math teacher, Veronika O’Donnell, is not a big fan of the conference change. “I’m afraid it could bring the Illini down,” said O’Donnell. 

Bryce Burnett, an offensive lineman for nearby Eastern Illinois University also shares a similar sentiment. “Being a football fan, it is frustrating to see the Power 5 conferences disappear pretty much all due to money,” said Burnett. “I really think in the coming years it will be only the Big 10 and SEC left as the major conferences with 20 teams in each which really will hinder the smaller schools that aren’t in those two main conferences.”

The conference shake-up in the college sports world isn’t the only thing that will make college football look different this year. In past years, there were only 4 teams that would be in playoffs. There is now a new playoff system that fans of the Big 10 will also need to get used to. “I personally think the new playoff system is still incomplete, especially since not all teams who deserve to get in will,” Burnett said. 

The new playoff system is almost like a tournament. If you watch the NFL then you know there are 14 teams in the playoffs. This year the NCAA has chosen to have 12 teams in the playoffs. “I think it’s a bad thing for the Big 10 to add more teams since now teams that lose maybe two games to the top teams will have little to no shot at the playoff. In my opinion, there needs to be 24 teams in the playoffs with it being your conference champions and then you rank all of the rest of your top 25 teams based off strength of schedule and point differential,” Burnett said. 

O’Donnell thinks the new playoff system overall could be a good thing. “It would make the Big 10 get more money and possibly Illinois could get some of that money to use for their football team,” O’Donnell said. Overall, college football fans will need to wait and see how this new conference will turn out.