Rapid Reaction: How Big Ten expansion impacts college football, Buckeyes athletics
COLUMBUS — The Big Ten is officially expanding, and it showed an aggressive side in the process, something that has to be refreshing for Ohio State.
The league moved to add USC and UCLA on Thursday, adding two historic athletic departments and making it competitive with a 16-team conference, the largest its ever been.
Ohio State is certainly a major factor in this decision, and athletic director Gene Smith and President Kristina M. Johnson met with the media for a press conference early Friday morning to give their thoughts on the matter — and field a variety of questions.
Lettermen Row was on hand for the press conference, and staffers Spencer Holbrook and Tim May are here on-site to break it all down in a jam-packed discussion as the Buckeyes athletic director and president spoke about the news.
RELATED: What potential Big Ten expansion would mean for Ohio State
What were the biggest takeaways from the Ohio State press conference Friday? What is Lettermen Row’s initial reaction to the breaking news that happened Thursday? How does this move benefit Ohio
State as it positions itself to remain at the top of the college football — and athletics — landscape? And just how will this move work out for everyone involved?
Of course, it’s easy to see this move by the Big Ten as a counter-punch to the SEC expansion a year ago. Ohio State doesn’t see this move as that.
“We weren’t doing it in response to the SEC,” Smith said. “We were doing it for our needs.”
Lettermen Row breaks down their thoughts on all of it, including how this impacts travel for the schools involved and what this means for the future of the sport as we know it.
That’s the summary of the latest Rapid Reaction from Lettermen Row. Check out the video below or on the Lettermen Row Youtube channel.
