College football expansion: Big Ten could reach 20 members, commish says
College football expansion and realignment got under way again this offseason when USC and UCLA announced a bombshell move to the Big Ten in 2024.
That came a year after another seismic shift when Texas and Oklahoma said they would join the SEC in time for the 2025 football season.
Now it appears the Big Ten doesn't think it's done yet. Not when listening to commissioner Kevin Warren during his recent sit-down with HBO's Real Sports.
College football expansion: Big Ten not done?
Bryant Gumbel: Right now, we are having a major realignment in college sports.
Kevin Warren: And I think during that period there's gonna be a lot of disruption. And that's okay. We need to embrace it if we want to make sure that we continually build college athletics in a position where it's here 100 and 200 years from now.
Gumbel: You're at 16 teams now. Could you foresee 20?
Warren: I could. Yeah. I could see perpetual and future growth.
The Big Ten kicked off the latest round of college football realignment
USA Today Images
Don't etch that in marble just yet, though. Warren appears to have been speaking theoretically and not actually outlining the Big Ten's plans.
But it's also worth noting that Warren's comments come after a report from Sports Illustrated with a Big Ten source claiming, "We are not done expanding."
The comments also come on the heels of the Big Ten announcing a landmark TV deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC that analysts value at $7 billion over seven years.
What will the Big Ten do with all that money? Warren offered a unique idea.
Paying college football players?
Gumbel: Could you foresee paying your athletes?
Warren: Yes. Yeah.
Gumbel: So could you foresee the day when Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin are paying their football players? Paying their basketball players because they are in revenue-producing sports?
Warren: Those are the things that we have to resolve. We have to. So I want to be part of this conversation, and will be part of this conversation of what we can do to make this better.
Whether these changes make college football "better" will be proved over time. But one thing is certain: the sport is changing more every day.
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