Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren reveals background behind additions of USC, UCLA

Big Ten Media Days are underway. Commissioner Kevin Warren was first to take the podium to give a sort of Stat of the Union on all the happenings of the Big Ten. Of course, during his time on the stage, Warren was asked several times about the conference’s recent acquisitions of USC and UCLA.

He provided widespread background of why the league made the moves. Emphasizing several areas outside of football where the league is getting great schools in a great market. Here were his comments on the matter:

“Even before I accepted the job, expansion was in there. I think we had to be forward-thinking as far as what we needed to do,” he said.

Warren then moved on to note the important figures to come out of USC and UCLA and how the academic side is also so important to the Big Ten.

“What do I think it brings more to the table than athletics? But academics is incredibly important. Look at some of the alumni from USC, UCLA — the Steven Spielberg, Jackie Robinson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Stan Smith. You just think of all the positive, powerful alumni, who have a diverse background. So academically, athletically. The graduation rates of each one of those schools is over 92%.”

Warren also revealed that the city of Los Angeles and the southern California area is a huge asset to the Big Ten.

“One of the things that caught my eye when I was interviewing for this job back in 2019 — I studied every one of the universities across the country. One of many things jumped out about USC and UCLA. The market of Los Angeles. The largest section of Big Ten alumni, other than in the midwest, is in Los Angeles.”

The Big Ten commissioner also revealed that he’s always on the lookout for moves like this. He likes to keep his thumb on the pulse of schools across the country in case a possibility such as this comes up.

“There’s so many opportunities that exist across the country. So I’ve spent a lot of time even before I came to the Big Ten. Once I accepted the job in the Big Ten. And even these last couple years. Always analyzing each and every school. To make sure that any time we have an opportunity to add incredible value, that we are prepared.”

So Kevin Warren had plenty of research done and ready by the time the two schools came available. He knew his answer to whether the Big Ten would want to add USC and UCLA long beforehand.

So a lot of the work we’ve done on any expansion, we’ve done it multiple years ago. We are always in a perpetual state of analyzing the goodness of fit for any institutions that would come into the Big Ten Conference.