Yogi Roth shares expectations for West Coast quartet joining Big Ten: 'They're flexing on their own brand'

INDIANAPOLIS — After another long day on air for the Big Ten Network from Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten Media Days, the crew could finally let out a collective exhale. After all, there are now 18 teams in the league to discuss.

Network staples and well-versed Big Ten voices like Dave Revsine, Gerry Dinardo and Howard Griffith remarked on another solid day of work, ready for the third and final day to come on Thursday. But a new face for fans of the Big Ten was also part of the broadcast: Yogi Roth. 

Roth, who gained acclaim over the years as a preeminent voice on West Coast football and worked as a Pac-12 analyst on the conference’s own network, is now in a similar role for the Big Ten Network. It’s a move that Roth is excited to undertake as he starts off as the league’s West Coast maven. But Roth is looking forward to not only the integration of four new schools to the league, but the chance to delve into the rest of the Big Ten, too.

“I mean it’s been a beautiful experience and I think my representation on the West Coast in this league I think will be important early on,” Roth said to On3. “Meanwhile I’m going to compete to get to know every team inside and out.”

In his first year working with BTN, Roth will obviously be leaned on for his knowledge and insight into USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. His intimate familiarity with those schools from prior work on the Pac-12 Network has Roth well-positioned to be a voice of authority on those schools and what they’re doing.

And Roth is arguably doing something the four West Coast Big Ten teams have done in entering the league.

“I think they’re excited to be in the league but I also think they’re flexing on their own brand, which I think they should, and I think it’ll help them as they enter the league,” Roth said.

Big-brand games will fuel the transition for new teams

One of the primary reasons the Big Ten added the four Big Ten teams is to create more big-time TV inventory. Games like Oregon vs. Ohio State or Michigan vs. USC. 

And Roth thinks it’s those games that will help acclimate teams into the league. Fans will build their weekends around such games, and they’ll likely come to expect such shows.

In essence, once these games kick off, the football will supersede everything else.

“I think the premiere games that we would all tune into if they were non-cons, that are now conference games like Michigan-USC, Ohio State-Oregon, the fact that they’re conference games, I think it’s going to make them feel part of this thing even faster, which I think will be only good,” Roth said. “Like UCLA going out to Penn State, UW going out for the White Out. So I think this season will probably integrate them even more.” 

The process of the whole league getting to know the Bruins, Ducks, Huskies and Trojans will take more than a season, though. With 18 teams in the league and nine-game conference schedules, it would take a minimum of two seasons to play every other team in the league. With protected rivalries staying on the schedule, it’ll be a handful of years before every team in the 18-team Big Ten has faced off.

And while some of them might be less-heralded matchups to come — Illinois will have to wait until after 2025 to play UCLA, for example — Roth is excited to see what’s borne out of those games.

All it takes is one weird afternoon on the football field for a rivalry to be born.

“I don’t have the schedule memorized in terms of future years but you have so many misses,” Roth said of the next two conference slates. “So it’s going to be interesting to see how that thing shakes out. And you wonder, college is such a rich sport when it comes to pageantry so I don’t think Big Ten fans are going to stop talking and representing their league.”

The Rose Bowl, Coliseum and Los Angeles weather will be a draw for visiting fans

There was no shortage of historic, legendary stadiums in the Big Ten prior to adding four West Coast teams. But the draw of watching teams play in the Rose Bowl of Coliseum will be a draw for visiting fans, Roth suspects.

This will be especially true for teams playing there later in the year. Iowa fans would likely enjoy a reprieve from November weather to see the Hawkeyes play UCLA in the Rose Bowl this fall, for example.

“You’re going to be able to take your vacations out there,” Roth said. “Imagine a world where, right now there’s a championship game that’s going to be here. But as you look at the future schedule, it’ll be really fun to look at ‘What does November look like in LA?’ Right now, for ‘SC, they don’t leave the western time zone after Oct. 19 and I think UCLA’s got a pretty favorable schedule, too towards the end of the season. So the Rose Bowl, or the Coli might host like a pseudo play-in game for the championship game, which would be fun.”

And though the weather might not be quite as appealing late in the season in the Pacific Northwest, Autzen and Husky Stadiums, respectively, are also considered two of the better venues for college football in the country.

There’s a tinge of sadness amidst the excitement for Roth

While Roth did find safe harbor with a new role with the Big Ten Network, not everyone working with or for the Pac-12 was so fortunate.

So as he’s been welcomed into the fold with the folks from BTN, Roth is still holding some space for those who got a very raw deal.

“My heart always, I think, will go out to all the people that lost their jobs at the Pac-12 based on nothing that any of them ever did,” Roth said. “They work really hard and do a nice job at that, so that’s always going to be the challenging part of this thing. But, like the Pac-12, it’s all about the people. So being able to meet Coach and Howard and Dave, I mean it’s been a beautiful experience and I think my representation on the West Coast in this league, I think, will be important early on.”