Is Big Ten Expansion Good for Purdue?

News broke recently that USC and UCLA were going to join the Big Ten as early as 2024. This is a monumental change to both the Big Ten and the landscape of college sports entirely. I think if you would’ve given me 10 guesses of teams that would be next to join to the Big Ten I would not have guessed USC or UCLA. These are two marquee programs that add a ton of possible revenue to the Big Ten and therefore by extension Purdue.

If you’re coming to this podcast to hear the downside of how this is terrible for Purdue and/or college sports you’ve come to the wrong podcast. This is going to be good for Purdue Athletics in the long term. More money, including possibly doubling the payout from television contracts, is the key issue here. All of these decisions are about money. We are big enough people to admit that this is what it all comes down to. USC and UCLA are leaving their home conferences and their traditional rivalries to come to what they view as a more stable conference and a more stable environment for the long term.

Today on the podcast we look at the changing landscape of college sports and how it impacts our beloved Boilermakers. We discuss both revenue and non-revenue sports.

First though, we talk about the top 20 recruits in Purdue football history (back to the history of the ratings so basically 2001). Casey asks me how many I can name while only making three mistakes. I maintain that by saying Karlaftis I should have been given 2 points and that there’s no way that Kyle Williams isn’t on that list. Casey has conveniently not provided me the list. How many do you think you could get? I struggled.

Edit: Casey has now shared the list with me.