Pete Thamel reveals additional information on Big Ten’s West Coast interest

The Big Ten is expanding to the West Coast by 2024 when USC and UCLA join the league. But new rumors and reports suggest the league won’t stop expanding that direction, and ESPN insider Pete Thamel provided more context to that interest on Wednesday.

During the ESPN College GameDay podcast, Thamel said the TV revenue might not be where it needs to be for the Big Ten to make any immediate westward moves. However, he said the interest is there, as previously reported. Oregon came up earlier this week as a potential target after a reported meeting with the league.

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“The only way that there is another wave of realignment soon is one of two things,” Thamel said. “One is somehow that Washington-Oregon West Coast wing, which the Big Ten clearly covets, creates more value. There is not a lot of interest from the television standpoint, monetarily, which means Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State would have to take a pay cut. I really feel like those schools — and, quite frankly, USC — doesn’t want to take a pay cut.

“There is an interest at the highest level of the Big Ten to build out that western wing because there’s a convenience factor, there’s a world domination factor, there’s an inevitability … that it is going to happen. It’s like the old Jeremy Foley, ‘if not eventually, why not now?’ That notion.”

Pete Thamel: ‘USC doesn’t want more West Coast neighbors than UCLA’

If the Big Ten does end up expanding west, Thamel said there might be concerns about recruiting. USC and UCLA will be the only Big Ten programs in the Los Angeles market, and adding teams out that way — outside of reported targets Oregon and Washington — could impact those programs’ recruiting tactics.

“This is another dynamic there, too, that I think hasn’t been talked about enough. USC doesn’t want more West Coast neighbors than UCLA,” Thamel said. “They basically own a really unique niche west of Texas. If you talk to people at USC, there is a distinct sense there that the exclusivity of owning Los Angeles and being on the other side of the moat only with UCLA there means a lot to them.

“You bring Oregon and Washington into the league, you’re inviting them into your recruiting backyard. … I think one of the reasons that USC went to the Big Ten was as a separator, so why eliminate the separator three months later? So the appetite on the ground does not equal the appetite in the commissioner’s office.”