Welcoming our new Big Ten friends!
Welcoming our new Big Ten friends!
Sunday, June 30 was the last day of the Big Ten as we know (or as we knew it for about a decade).
On Monday, July 1, the conference welcomes four new members, expanding its membership to 18 universities and colleges.
Here we’re compiling what you need to know as the Big Ten brings in USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon — and all of our coverage over the past two years as this expansion came to fruition.
SB Nation Sister Sites
USC and UCLA unfortunately do not have SB Nation sites, so there are 16 communities for the 18 schools.
As for Oregon, you can be sure to visit Addicted to Quack (get it, ducks?).
And Washington has the UW Dawg Pound, but you can just continue to follow TCR and our Seattle resident Mihir Chavan.
Now to the impact on Illinois...
It’s going to be significant. There’s no doubt about that.
In football, Illinois has an even taller hill to climb to get past 17 teams, rather than just the six others in the atrocious Big Ten West.
In men’s and women’s basketball, there’s certainly a path to continued success for the Illini.
In every other sport, it depends! These new foes are really good at some things, and not so good at others.
Let’s have some fun! Welcome, friends!