Big Ten conference commissioner Jim Delaney says the latest round of expansion will lead to an expanded conference schedule for football and basketball. Rutgers University announced, today, that it is leaving the Big East Conference to become the 14th member of the Big Ten.
The league currently has an eight game schedule for Football and Delaney believes that down the road the conference will need to add at least one more league game. “Going to 10 is a real paradigm shift, because it would be 5, 5 and there’s only two other games. At the end of the day I think probably 9,” Delaney says.
Delaney says an expanded schedule will be needed ro preserve traditional rivalries. “I do think though that as you add members, that you have to seriously consider adding more games, so as not to dilute how much you play each other. So that means to me — both in basketball and football — more conference games is squarely on the table,” Delaney says.