Suddenly the Seminoles and the Hurricanes are on the expansion radar for The Big Ten. The conference feels strongly about planting a flag in Florida because of the massive conference alumni base not to mention having schools in the heart of SEC Country.
Seeing Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, UCLA and USC heading to Tallahassee as well as Miami is far more exciting to fans than seeing Wake Forest, N.C. State or Duke. Also, getting $100 million dollars a year from TV/streaming money really sounds very exciting.
But there is a long way to go before this happens or for that matter if it ever happens.
Presently, both schools are in the ACC and if they were to leave the cost could be over $100 million dollars. But the future of college football is in flux and so is the future of the ACC.
The talk began with former Tampa Tribune reporter Brett McMurphy now with the Action Network and Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports are reporting that suddenly the Big Ten could be adding both Florida State and Miami. It is part of a long process that if all goes right would give the Big Ten reach from Florida to California.
This comes from Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren made it clear that his conference is far from finished expanding. At the moment there is no timetable but after by 2024 Southern California and UCLA will be joining the Big Ten.
Now before Tallahassee and Miami fans start thinking of games with Ohio State, Michigan, USC and UCLA the process will take time if indeed this what comes next.
The next teams to be added will be more Pac 12 teams Cal, Oregon, Stanford and Washington are coming along soon. Of those four teams we don’t who will be added first.
The Florida State and Miami if they want to join would come aboard on after the 2025. The conference would reopen television and streaming bidding after the 2025 season to add both cash and complete the Super Conference makeover.
“We will not expand just to expand,” Warren said. “It will be strategic, it will add additional value to our conference and it will provide a platform to even have our student-athletes be put on a larger platform so they can build their careers but also that they have an opportunity to grow and learn from an education and from an athletic standpoint.”
At that point you would have a conference that would own all four time zones as well as a large share of the Top 50 television markets.
Most of the members of the Big Ten conference are part of the American Athletic Union a group of colleges and universities that are researched based intuitions. Neither Florida State nor Miami are part of the AAU but Warren mentioned that while it is conference prefers it is not mandatory and Nebraska is the only school not in the Big Ten presently not an AAU member.
