Oregon and Washington are finalizing a deal to join the Big Ten, sources told ESPN, a move that continues to dwindle the Pac-12 and puts that conference’s future in the crosshairs.
The schools are expected to formally apply for membership Friday, sources said, and a Big Ten vote is expected to take place this evening, according to sources.
The Big Ten vote is expected to be unanimous for the two schools to join in 2024, sources said, despite initial pushback from schools in the league on admitting them.
The finances of the move are not immediately clear, but both Oregon and Washington will receive only a partial share of the conference allotment through the length of its upcoming television deal, which goes through the 2029-30 school year.
The move would push the Big Ten to 18 schools. Starting in 2024, that will include a western wing of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. None of those schools is required to pay an exit fee because of the Pac-12’s expiring television deal.
The departures put Oregon and Washington’s former conference, the century-old Pac-12, in flux. Arizona has applied to and been admitted to the Big 12, ESPN sources said, although that deal has yet to be finalized. And conversations between the Big 12 and Utah and Arizona State ramped up Friday, sources said.
With the Pac-12’s television deal expiring after the 2023-24 school year, the conference is in peril. The departure of Colorado last week, the loss of Oregon and Washington, and the expected departure of Arizona leave the league gutted.
The only certainties moving forward are California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State. The Pac-12 can’t just add Mountain West programs to the league in 2024, as there is a $32 million exit fee per Mountain West school to leave before the start of the 2025 football season.
Oregon’s and Washington’s decisions to go to the Big Ten won’t be a financial windfall in the short term. The deal is expected to escalate each year, but it’s still only in the neighborhood of a half-share of what the other 16 teams in the conference are expected to get. A source said the payouts would grow every year and be competitive with, and perhaps surpass, the payouts of leagues such as the Big 12 and ACC.
That Big Ten full-share number is fluid, so schools don’t have clarity on it yet. That’s because the Big Ten longform television contract isn’t complete, along with variables like College Football Playoff money and NCAA tournament units, but a fair projection is nearly $70 million annually.
The numbers from the Big Ten were being compared with the ambiguity of the numbers the Pac-12 received in its stream-heavy deal from Apple, which included subscription incentives that needed to be hit for the schools to make big money.
The Big Ten and Washington and Oregon went back into deep discussions Friday morning, sources said, after the Pac-12 presidents’ call ended quickly because of a lack of comfort moving forward with the primary streaming deal.
The move makes the Big Ten the first major conference to push to 18 teams and will further the notion of a push toward superconferences. The SEC will make its debut as a 16-team conference with Texas and Oklahoma in 2024, the same year the Big Ten will roll out its West Coast additions. The Big 12 is officially up to 13, and that number could rise soon.
Oregon and Washington represent strong football additions for the Big Ten, as they have taken part in the College Football Playoff. They will join Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan as CFP teams in that league.
Oklahoma defensive tackle David Stone entered the NCAA transfer portal Friday, sources told ESPN.
Stone, a former five-star recruit and the No. 6 overall player in the ESPN 300 for the 2024 class, made the surprising decision to enter the portal after playing in all 13 games as a true freshman with the Sooners. The 6-foot-3 313-pounder saw limited playing time, playing 88 snaps and recording 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1 sack.
Stone was expected to compete for a more significant role as a sophomore, and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables recently praised him as the Sooners’ most improved defensive tackle this offseason.
The Oklahoma native finished his high school career at IMG Academy in Florida and was a significant recruiting victory for Venables and his coaching staff in August 2023. Stone chose the Sooners over Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida, Miami and Michigan State.
The SEC does not grant immediate eligibility to players who transfer within the conference during the spring transfer window, so Stone would need to sit out the 2025 season if he moves on to another SEC program.
Oklahoma returns its top three defensive tackles from 2024 in Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Jayden Jackson. It also added Trent Wilson, the No. 164 recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2025, as an early enrollee this spring.
Browne committed to rejoining the Boilermakers on Friday after entering his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt sophomore started two games for Purdue in 2024 but moved on amid the program’s head coaching change and went through spring practice under new Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick.
North Carolina landed a commitment from South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez on Thursday.
Browne and freshman Bryce Baker were North Carolina’s lone scholarship quarterbacks available for spring practice and were competing with three walk-ons while sixth-year senior Max Johnson recovers from a broken leg.
Browne threw for 636 yards, rushed for 240 yards and scored four touchdowns while appearing in nine games as Hudson Card’s backup over the past two seasons at Purdue, earning starts in losses to Illinois and Oregon.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines’ spring game Saturday.
Underwood was 12 of 26 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over the Maize.
He also recovered his fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties, several errant throws – high and wide – and some dropped. Underwood lost 12 yards on two sacks and gained 17 yards on three runs.
“He did well,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “Made some really, good throws and had some things we need to clean up and get better at.”
As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood and he has become comfortable with that.
“It’s just the pressure that came with my arm,” Underwood told The Detroit News earlier this spring. “I can’t stop that.”
Underwood was sacked on his first snap and his first completion went for a loss. He did throw some darts, usually in the flat, and was quick enough to escape collapsed pockets to pick up yardage with his feet.
Underwood is expected to compete with sophomore Jadyn Davis and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for playing time ahead of the season-opening game on Aug. 30 at home against Fresno State.
“It’s a battle,” Moore said. “It’s going to go all the way to fall camp.”
Underwood is motivated to start and kick off a legacy-building career with lofty goals.
“A couple of Heismans and at least one natty,” Underwood said last month in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.
Underwood knows there will be people doubting he can live up to the hype.
‘He’s just a freshman. He won’t be good enough,'” Underwood said. “I might keep that chip my whole three years.”
He attended at Belleville High School, which is about 15 miles east of Ann Arbor, and flipped his commitment to Michigan after telling LSU coaches last year he intended to play there.
Tom Brady, a former Wolverine and seven-time Super Bowl winner, talked with Underwood during the school’s recruitment via FaceTime and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, also connected with him.
Jay Underwood told the Wall Street Journal that his son is expected to make more than $15 million at Michigan, but that doesn’t guarantee he will take the first snap next fall.
“He wants to earn everything,” Moore has said. “He doesn’t want to be given anything.”
Hoffman said Underwood has simply blended in with his teammates.
“He’s really humble, like not a big head, ego, nothing like that,” he said. “Comes into work and every day, he wants to get better every day. He’s not riding off his success in high school. He’s really trying to be one of those top players in college football.”
Underwood participated in practices with the team before it beat Alabama in a bowl game, enrolled in classes in January and gained a lot experience in 14 private practices before a public scrimmage.
“Football is football,” he told MLive.com. “School is a little bit more overwhelming now.”