Tony Petitti on future Big Ten expansion: 'We're comfortable where we are'

The Big Ten swung for the fences adding four west coast teams in expansion but commissioner Tony Petitti said that’s all for now.

He didn’t rule out further expansion in the future during Big Ten Media Days Tuesday, but the focus is on the current 18 schools. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington were added ahead of the 2024 school year.

Petitti knows the changing landscape of college sports could determine where conferences go in a few years, but for now, the Big Ten is what it is.

“I think it’s pretty clear when you look at the schedule that we’ve talked about unveiling here about the strength and depth of what we’re doing,” Petitti said. “I think the fit of the four is across, obviously, we’re here to talk about football, when you go beyond that, you know, for our presidents and chancellors, the academic fit is really important, if you look at the strength and all other sports that the four new members bring. So it’s a complete match across many different factors. 

“That’s what made the decision to add Oregon, Washington, which was done by my staff, and then the decision that Kevin Warren and his staff did to add USC and UCLA. So I see great strength across matchups, you know, the footprint that we’ll have going forward. I think we’ve got to get a lot of things right. But I feel really good about the way we’re positioned for the future in terms of the health and strength of the conference.”

Tony Petitti, Big Ten standing pat in expansion for now

Petitti made sure to mention that the 18 teams was the cap, at least currently. Again, the Big Ten commissioner did not rule out the addition of other schools.

Although Petitti was not asked by specific schools coming to the Big Ten, it was just in relations to the current ACC turmoil amid lawsuits.

“With regard to the second part of your question about just you know, the future, look, you know, we’re focused on the 18 right now,” Petitti said. “That’s what we’re focused on. We had to do a lot of work. You know, a lot of work had been done to integrate USC, UCLA, we started that work over immediately when we added Oregon and Washington.

“So I think we’re really comfortable where we are. We’ve got to get this conference right and that’s what our focus is.”