Big Ten’s next expansion targets are the most likely suspects

The Big Ten Conference is looking to expand, and the universities that they have in mind should not be surprising to any college football fan.

Expansion has been the talk of college football recently. Next year, the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins are making the leap from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. The Pac-12 suffered even more losses, as the Colorado Buffaloes are once again heading back to the Big 12. Now, there are reports that the Big Ten is looking to expand to include more teams with the instability of the Pac-12.

But who could the conference be targeting? Well, let’s just say the latest targets are the least surprising names imaginable.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Big Ten presidents met on Thursday morning and “authorized Commissioner Tony Petitti to explore expansion and bring them back more information on Oregon and Washington as potential Big Ten members.”

Thamel further reports (subscription required) that no vote was taken and an offer has not been made.

Big Ten reportedly considering adding Oregon and Washington in potential expansion

According to Brett McMurphy of Action Network, the Big Ten is trying to figure out the financial details on Oregon and Washington, and a conference source told him, “There is no more research or information needed on Oregon & Washington. We have everything we need.”

The Big Ten is currently sitting at 16 members. Their last expansion before the additions of USC and UCLA took place back in 2014 when they added Rutgers from the American Athletic Conference and Maryland from the ACC.

Back on Wednesday, The Athletic reported that besides Oregon and Washington, the Big Ten was also considering adding Stanford and California. But, that report indicated that those talks were “preliminary” and that they may opt to remain at 16 teams.

If Oregon and Washington were to leave, those would be gigantic losses for the Pac-12. The Ducks football program had been in this conference since 1964, while the Huskies had been there since 1916.

The Pac-12 is currently trying to negotiate a new television rights deal. Multiple reports indicated that the conference received a streaming offer from Apple+ and is the likely frontrunner.

With this latest report, the college football world waits to see if Oregon and Washington will join their former Pac-12 counterparts in the Big Ten.