The Big Ten will officially expand to 18 teams next week.
Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA will officially become members of the conference on Monday, bringing in a new era for what’s traditionally been a Midwest-based conference. From a football standpoint, the Big Ten’s newest round of expansion should immediately make the conference more competitive as Oregon enters 2024 as a major College Football Playoff contender while Washington is the defending national runner-up and USC has a history of competing for championships.
With that in mind, we thought this week would be a good time to take a look at how the Big Ten stacks up entering the 2024 season with a focus on the conference’s new teams and the teams that we expect to be Ohio State’s toughest competition for the conference title this year.