The Big Ten hasn't discussed expansion, commissioner Tony Petitti said Thursday.
The Protect College Sports Act, if it were to become law, would allow the 18-member conference to add two additional schools. The bill, which passed the U.S. Senate in a 77-22 vote in September, would cap conference membership at 20 teams and require any school moving from one Power 4 league to another to spend three years without any conference affiliation.
Petitti said the Big Ten has been "aggressively supporting" the bill, but there were "absolutely no discussions taking place around expansion, and there haven't been for quite some time," according to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg.
"This conference has got 18 strong members," Petitti added as he spoke at Big Ten basketball media days. "We're focused on that. There's lots of things that we think we can do inside the conference to continue to grow the position that we have with the 18 members."
Petitti expressed optimism that the House of Representatives will pass the bill and allow college sports to address "core things" such as eligibility and transfer rules.
The Big Ten has 18 member institutions, tied with the ACC for the most among Power 4 conferences. The SEC and Big 12 each include 16 schools.
The Big Ten most recently expanded in 2024 by bringing in USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington from the Pac-12. The league added Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland during the 2010s.
