Steve Pikiell raves over Big Ten additions of Oregon, Washington citing 'value'

Rutgers basketball coach Steve Pikiell knows value when he sees it and that’s exactly what he saw when Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti capitalized on the latest rumblings around college realignment and doubled the west coast presence. Predecessor Kevin Warren added USC and UCLA last season and the schools are slated to begin the Big Ten era in 2024.

Pikiell was always a big fan of the Big Ten since he came to Rutgers, but now he sees an epic conference coast to coast.

“You’re right about our commissioner,” Pikiell told Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on Sirius XM. “He’s awesome and just very confident the way he talks. Like he’s going to add value to the league which … the league is terrific already and he must feel these two teams bring tremendous value. I think the travel agents are excited.”

Some are concerned over the travel for teams, even with the big guns like football and basketball. In Rutgers’ case, it’s a complete cross country trip to go from New Jersey to Washington, Oregon or California.

“They haven’t even gotten that far but I kind of think even with UCLA, USC it was gonna be every other year, would be one nice trip,” Pikiell said. “That’s what they were talking about going to LA … I think that’s where they’ll go with it. But you know, it’s so new and so early and there’s been so much speculation, I don’t really know … I do know football is important in all this.”

Of course, conference realignment is the name of the game right now. The driver? Football.

It’s been no different with the Big Ten, despite the conference being pretty well off in basketball and other Olympic sports.

“Football is important and we got a great football coach and this year he’ll show people the work that he’s done and the recruiting that he’s done and he’s had a chance now to build his program too,” Pikiell said regarding where Rutgers fits in the football equation. “So Rutgers football is in great shape, but all the dominoes are falling with that sport. That’s what I think anyway.”

The Big Ten already did away with divisions for next football season (2024) and released the conference opponent schedules for the 16 teams. The conference will have to start from scratch at this point.

In pure speculation, it could change based on a regional formula, especially in the case of the four west coast schools to reduce travel or at least make trips a little easier throughout the Big Ten.