When the Big Ten and the SEC underwent their most recent expansions, they both picked programs that had the necessary value to their respective networks. We all know that's why Stanford and California are in the ACC, not the B1G.
The "save college athletics" legislation going around Congress has a provision to allow the Big Ten to add 19th team. This is clearly aimed at Notre Dame when they opt to drop their semi-independent status in the ACC. Bluebloods who can bring value are the only future candidates for the B1G and the SEC.
We all know the various networks are paying large sums of money to televise these games. The Big Ten generated $1.47B in revenue in the FY 2024/5 and the SEC around $1.1B. That means Fox Sports, NBC and CBS have a very big say in the B1G conference schedules.
For Michigan, which is such a valued brand, that means playing a fair share of major teams in the conference. The 2028 conference schedule perhaps eases up a bit, but that's up in the air. See
https://fbschedules.com/2028-michigan-football-schedule/
What happens to the non-conference schedule, which Michigan perhaps has some more control? Does UM drop that major OOC home-and-home opponent? I suspect part of the discussion in Ann Arbor deals with the number of teams in the CFP. Does it stay at 12? Increase to 16? What about 24?
Of course, this is only a one decade long question given the severity of the global climate emergency. I expect these conferences to downsize and regionalize in the mid-2030s anyway.
FASTEST GLOBAL WARMING IN EARTH'S HISTORY INCLUDING ALL PREVIOUS MASS EXTINCTIONS: capitalist era warming increasing at unprecedented rate with 2026 and 2027 to be hottest years on record as warming combines with pesticides and wildlife destruction, etc to threaten 75% of species pic.twitter.com/ZQSh73IxfJ
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) August 14, 2026