The Big Ten has been very active this offseason with the additions of USC and UCLA, and a new huge TV deal that was finalized this week. But it sounds like the league isn’t quite done in their pursuit to alter the college sports landscape.
Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren will be on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, where he’ll be discussing further expansion and paying players. In teasing that upcoming episdoe, HBO released the following information seen in the tweet below:
Buy Spartans TicketsBig Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren says that he foresees the conference paying players and having 20 members, via @RealSportsHBO. pic.twitter.com/tZy4rKfd0e
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 19, 2022
Paying players as if they are employees would be a huge shift to the current landscape but also seems like something we’ve always been heading towards. NIL really was just a stop-gap in the meantime so Warren’s thoughts on paying players shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
Adding potentially four more teams to the Big Ten is even more noteworthy, in my opinion. There have been reports of the Big Ten looking to continue expansion but this coming directly from Warren shows the league doesn’t appear to be done.
Who the Big Ten will add is the bigger question. There have been mixed reports but it sounds like the Big Ten is locked in on adding more west coast teams such as Stanford, Oregon, Washington or Cal. The other obvious choice is Notre Dame but whether or not they’d accept an invitation is up in the air.
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