Former SEC commissioner ‘perplexed’ by Big Ten expansion

The Big Ten made headlines and critics like Roy Kramer when they acquired USC and UCLA from the Pac-12 to be a part of the conference starting in 2024. Kramer recently spoke to ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum to discuss the addition’s negatives.

“The Big Ten expansion perplexes me a little bit, because of the non-geographic alignment. You can’t build strong rivalries that way, but you can gain television exposure. We’ll see how it works out.”

-Roy Kramer, the “Father of the BCS,” weighs in on the current state of CFB

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) August 12, 2022

Among the criticisms of the move was the geographical differences between the two west coast schools and the rest of the B1G. Kramer states new rivalries cannot be formed with long distances.

The future Big Ten schools have familiarity with their future peers on the gridiron. In football nonconference play, USC and UCLA have historically played teams from the B1G more than opponents from any other conference. USC has faced teams from the B1G 108 times with Ohio State being the team they have faced the most at 24 times. UCLA has played in 93 games against B1G teams with Nebraska being the team that faced the most at 13 games.

Kramer did say that the move for the B1G to add USC and UCLA was something that will gain good television exposure.