Ross Bjork: Expanding out west was the right move for the Big Ten

2024 marks a massive year of change in college athletics headlined by nationwide conference alignment. Which the Big Ten is at the forefront of after expanding its geographical borders in an unprecedented way with the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington to the conference.

The league’s expansion and conference realignment at large has come with a slew of different dialogue and opinions surrounding the future of college sports. But new Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork recently shared his opinions on the Big Ten’s expansion on The Tim May Show ahead of football season.

“I think from a market base, from a TV value, from an economic ecosystem, it’s not unwieldy,” Bjork told May. “It was the right decision to get into markets that have a lift for the rest of us, right? And a lot of times in these decisions now, that’s what’s leading it is how do we drive more value for our media rights? And again, now we can talk about that, because there is commercial activity.”

When it comes to revenue, there’s no question that expanding markets and adding brand names to a conference makes sense and will help out the Big Ten financially. But stretching the borders of the league also stretches travel for student-athletes in an unprecedented way. A way that is definitely not created equally depending on the sport.

“Look, I think the things that will get tricky that we have to continue to watch and manage is how we schedule, how are we traveling out to the West Coast, those West Coast teams when they travel east, how do they manage that?” Bjork asked. “They’re going to be traveling east a lot more than we’re traveling west.”

“Football is pretty easy, you’re just doing that one trip. Basketball, volleyball, tennis, baseball, softball, soccer, that’s where people say, ‘Okay, now we’re spread out, what does that look like long term?'”

The Big Ten and other leagues that now have teams spread across the nation will have to manage the well-being of student-athletes as they travel from coast to coast and balance their academics along with their athletics. And even big picture Bjork knows that more changes and adaptations are likely on the horizon.

“Look, there’s going to continue to be market corrections and market shifts in college athletics. There’s a reason why TV contracts have terms on them, because things can change. So all of us are monitoring the ACC, all of us are going to monitor what happens in the late 2020s, early 2030s because contracts expire and contracts run out. So when you either renew those contracts or let them expire, do other things start to shift?” Bjork asked.

This season likely represents just one of several dominoes that will continue to fall in college athletics, as more and more signs point toward the cream continuing to rise to the top and the conferences with the most strength continuing to grow and dictate what the future of college sports looks like. Especially in football where the most revenue is generated.

“There’s a reason why the Big Ten and the SEC are now coalescing around a lot of these initiatives,” Bjork said. “We have the biggest brands, we have the biggest TV value, what does that mean in the future? We can’t predict it, but I think like-minded institutions have to stick together. Big brands have to stick together as this ecosystem evolves.”

“There’s a lot of work to do on the governance front at the NCAA … The governance front has to be redefined in terms of what does Division I mean? What does FBS mean?. So all of these things have to come into play, and we base that on conference affiliation. Maybe we’re still in the same conference, but our affiliation, our economics, those are the things that all get sort of consolidated down the road and so I think that part will be fascinating as we get into the next 10 to 15 years.”

Rumors and speculation about college athletics more so resembling professional sports continue to circulate. With revenue sharing potentially on the horizon along with the top college football separating itself from the rest and the sport at large distancing from the rest of college athletics.

But regardless of what the future looks like, there’s no question that the Big Ten will be front and center for all possible changes.