Jeffrey Bassa reacts to Oregon's decision to join Big Ten

Conference realignment has taken the sport by storm over the past couple weeks, with both the Big Ten and Big 12 strengthening their ranks with additions from the Pac-12. Oregon‘s decision to join the Big Ten will go down as one of the pivotal moves.

The Ducks bring a strong pedigree to their new league. But that’s a two-way street.

“I think it’s going to be really exciting for Oregon as a whole just to expand the brand more to the East coast and for other teams to see Oregon and what we can do on the field and what we can do off the field as an academic school as well,” Oregon linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said.

Oregon’s decision to join the Big Ten along with Washington means that league will now have 18 teams. And while there will undoubtedly be a lot of travel with more than half the league in the midwest or on the east coast, the additional Pac-12 teams mean there will be a few more west coast games in the mix.

That has to be a positive for the new additions. Because there will undoubtedly be a lot of logistics to work through otherwise.

Players are already well aware of what the new reality will look like, even if they haven’t gone through it in practice yet the way they will when 2024 rolls around.

“Obviously it’s going to be long flights, there’s going to be a whole lot of figuring out what we’re going to do on flights, people’s families,” Bassa said. “A lot of people’s families, they stayed in the Pac-12, or they wanted to be on the West coast to come to games. Now it’s going to be difficult for families and friends to go all the way out to the East coast, but it should be fun, though.”

That’s the unfortunate downside to Oregon’s decision to join the Big Ten.

Unfortunately college sports are no longer regional, meaning it’s more professional than ever. There will be long road trips. There will be difficulties making games for family.

Still, Oregon is hopeful that joining the Big Ten will leave the program in better position than it would have been in in the Pac-12 under a new television deal.

The payout for Oregon won’t be immediate, as the program joins the Big Ten on a reduced payout structure initially. But by the time a second television contract rolls around, Oregon should be a full member of the league with all the benefits that entails.

And by then, the full ramifications of Oregon’s decision to join the Big Ten will be clear, to both players and administrators.