Big Ten could expand beyond additions of USC, UCLA, says commissioner Kevin Warren, if it adds 'additional value' to conference

INDIANAPOLIS — Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said further expansion beyond USC and UCLA is possible, if done for the right reasons, and the league will take a «bold» approach toward major changes in college athletics.

USC and UCLA, which are set to join the Big Ten for the 2024 season, will receive full revenue shares from the league immediately, Warren said, unlike the three most recent additions: Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers. The Big Ten is nearing a new media rights agreement, which reportedly will bring in more than $1 billion annually and that Warren hopes to announce «sooner than later.»

«I get asked every single day, what's next?» Warren said Tuesday to open Big Ten football media days. «It may include future expansion, but it will be done for the right reasons, at the right time, with our student-athletes' academic and athletic empowerment at the center of any and all decisions that we will make.

»We will not expand just to expand. It will be strategic; it will add additional value to our conference."

Warren said he examined expansion even while interviewing for the Big Ten commissioner job in 2019, and studied many schools, including USC and UCLA. He recalled learning that Los Angeles had the largest section of Big Ten alumni outside of the Midwest.

Warren noted that the Big Ten soon will have a presence in the country's three largest markets — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — and will «provide content all the way from the morning into the night» with its next media rights agreement. Fox will be the Big Ten's lead media partner for the next agreement, but the league has also spoken with ESPN, CBS, NBC, Amazon and Apple.

«A lot of work we've done on any potential expansion, we've done multiple years