The Big Ten’s rapid expansion is continuing, as Oregon and Washington were approved on Friday as the conference’s latest additions, set to become the Big Ten’s 17th and 18th member schools.
The schools were unanimously approved by the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors, and Oregon and Washington’s addition to the Big Ten will become effective on Aug. 2, 2024, with both schools set to begin conference play in the 2024-25 athletic season.
“We are excited to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference,” said Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. “We look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the universities, administrators and staff, student-athletes, coaches and fans. Both institutions feature a combination of academic and athletic excellence that will prove a great fit for our future.”
Oregon and Washington’s departure from the Pac-12 comes as the historic conference was unable to secure a grant of rights deal with their member schools, with issues stemming from the conference’s recent streaming-centric media rights deal with Apple. As part of the deal, member schools only would have been paid around $20 million per year, significantly less than the Big Ten and SEC.
Joining Oregon and Washington in departing the Pac-12 is Colorado, who has already announced a move to the Big 12, and the Buffaloes are expected to be joined by Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, leaving only Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State as member schools. The conference will stay together for at least this upcoming season, however, set to finish out this athletic year before Oregon and Washington – as well as USC and UCLA, whose departures to the Big Ten were announced last summer – join the conference ahead of the 2024-25 athletic season.
In joining the Big Ten, Oregon and Washington will not receive a full share of the conference’s media rights deal, a reported seven-year, $7 billion deal beginning this season with Fox, CBS and NBC. But the teams are expected to receive around $30 million – still more than the amount offered by the Pac-12’s media rights deal – with that number to grow each season before earning full shares in the conference’s next media rights deal.
The Big Ten recently announced the conference’s 2024 and 2025 football scheduling model and opponents for each team. While Oregon and Washington’s addition likely nullify at least some of the announced schedule, reported indicated that the Big Ten will look to adjust the schedule rather than creating an entirely new one.
