A Big Ten AD says conference will expand again by 2030

An inflatable Big Ten Conference logo adorns the outside of the track during day one of the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 16, 2025, at Hayward Field in Eugene. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Big Ten is expanding again, according to a report from On3's Brett McMurphy.

Although McMurphy reported the conference isn't sure which schools it will be adding yet, he referred to new Maryland athletic director's Jim Smith's comments this week with Inside Maryland Radio when he was asked how many teams the conference will have in 2030, in which Smith responded "20."

Big Ten expanding again, Maryland AD says. Who will be the new teams & what role does Notre Dame play in it? https://t.co/uSzfdjYhO0

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 27, 2025

The last expansion for the conference came just last year when the Big Ten added former PAC-12 schools Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA to push the league up to 18 schools total. Prior to that, the conference expanded to 14 teams from 12 in 2014 when it added Maryland and Rutgers.

In the next few years, according to McMurphy's report, the conference will figure out when various conference exit fees and/or media rights deals reduce and/or expire and will make evaluations from there.

"The Big Ten’s top candidates in 2025 might not even be the top candidates in 2030. It’s no surprise, the Big Ten will prefer AAU membership schools with big TV brands, broad-based sports offerings and long-term accretive metrics along with many, many other factors," McMurphy wrote.

McMurphy also reported that while he cannot reveal which schools the conference is targeting for expansion, he did confirm Notre Dame is not one of them and that the Irish will never join a conference.

"Notre Dame has been an independent since, well, forever. And the Irish will remain an independent until the world ends – or until we have another COVID season, whichever comes first. Notre Dame will never join a conference because it (a) has its own television deal, (b) can keep its non-football sports in a conference and (c) has access to the College Football Playoff as an independent," he wrote.

As the years pass, it will be interesting to see which schools the conference ends up targeting. At the current pace, it might not be too long before the Big Ten and SEC become college football's lone "super conferences" depending on whether the Big 12 and ACC can keep pace and continue to grow themselves.

Michigan was a founding member of the Big Ten conference, but had a temporary hiatus from the conference between 1907 and 1916 before rejoining.

Nov 15, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; The Big Ten conference logo on the court at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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