Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti isn’t looking to make the league any larger right now.
Speaking Thursday at Big Ten basketball media days in Chicago, Petitti said there are no active expansion talks and no plans to add to a conference that now sits at 18 schools, even as rumors continue to circulate about possible interest from LSU, Miami and others.
“There are "absolutely no discussions taking place around expansion," Petitti said, with his focus instead on helping the current membership adapt to a changing college sports landscape.
“This conference has got 18 strong members,” Petitti said. “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.”
The league’s most recent expansion came in 2024, when it added Oregon, UCLA, Southern California and Washington from the Pac-12.
Petitti also said the Big Ten backs the Protect College Sports Act, a measure he believes could help conferences stay aligned on issues like eligibility limits, transfer rules and state compliance with existing legislation.
“The bill isn't going to stop every possible thing,” he said. “That's not what it's intended to do. In areas like eligibility, transfer, legislating litigation around NIL, states trying to come over the top of the system, and the settlement, this will clean all that up, and so that's really critical.”
The basketball side of the day brought its own heavy hitters, and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo made clear he expects the league to be as brutal as ever.
With Michigan, Illinois, UCLA and USC all carrying plenty of talent, Izzo said the battle will come down just as much to the buildings as the rosters once conference play starts.
“The Big Ten is going to be damn good. Michigan, Illinois, UCLA and USC have a lot of talent,” he said.
“I'm leaving others out. I think Maryland will be far improved.
But what isn't appreciated is our home buildings. Every game is an event.
You can't rest in this league.”
Izzo was talking about a conference that sent two teams to the Final Four, four to the Elite Eight and six to the Sweet 16 last spring - more than any other league.
Illinois was one of the teams at the center of that run, and coach Brad Underwood said his group should lean into the expectations rather than duck them.
“(We're) not running from it. We're accepting the fact that people think we're pretty good, OK?”
Underwood said. “We worked for that, we deserve that.
Handle the ups and the downs. ...
“This group hasn't done anything. Last year's team did.
Keaton Wagler's not coming back through the door... Let's make our own identity, and let's make it a better one.
The only way we know to do that is work.”
Illinois returns several important pieces, but it will do so without Keaton Wagler, who was a lottery pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. Michigan, meanwhile, is reworking its own title defense under Mike Boynton Jr., who stepped in after Dusty May left for the Dallas Mavericks.
Boynton said May “got drafted first,” after Michigan’s national championship run in Indianapolis, and he praised his former boss as “the best I've ever been around just in terms of emotional IQ.”
“His ability to surround himself with high-quality, competent people and give them the vision to execute. The biggest part I've tried to replicate,” Boynton said, “is just having the right people in the room.”
Not everything is starting over in Ann Arbor. Guards Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney are back, and Michigan is aiming to put itself in position to play in Detroit, where the 2027 Final Four will be held.
Oregon’s situation shifted in a hurry. Tony Stubblefield was an assistant on Dana Altman’s staff less than 48 hours before Thursday’s appearance, then found himself in the spotlight as the Ducks’ interim head coach after Altman announced his retirement Wednesday.
Stubblefield said he was “Not totally surprised” by the move.
“We had a challenging year last year... I think that took a lot out of him.”
Stubblefield, who coached DePaul from 2021-24 and also had earlier stints with Oregon, said he has known Eugene since 2010. He takes over a program that reached the NCAA Tournament’s second round in 2024 and 2025 but missed the field in three of the past five seasons. Last year also marked Oregon’s first sub-.500 finish under Altman at 12-20.
“Obviously it's a lot for these young men,” Stubblefield said on Big Ten Network. “They came there to play for Dana Altman, to play at the University of Oregon.
What I told them, we've got to stay more connected now. We've got to be tight. ...
This is a very good group. We've had very good leadership with (seniors) Sean Stewart, Fred Payne, Andrew Meadow.
And I told those guys we've gotta be tighter than ever.”
Rutgers is also dealing with a coaching change of a different kind, with longtime head coach Steve Pikiell undergoing cancer treatment and associate head coach Brandin Knight serving in the interim.
Knight said Pikiell is still heavily involved behind the scenes.
“He's involved in my day-to-day, and I'm always checking on him from a standpoint of what he sees, what he's thinking, what I should be worried or concerned about,” Knight said. “And then he takes some of the pressure off of myself just because he's still trying to be there as much as he can at every waking moment.
“So at times we have to tell him -- yesterday he apologized to the staff for not being there for us and being able to do more. And it's just kind of a testament to who he is as a person and just as a supporter of us.”
For Iowa coach Ben McCollum, the challenge is replacing point guard Bennett Stirtz, who followed him from Division II Northwest Missouri State to Drake to Iowa before heading to the NBA.
McCollum said the Hawkeyes will have to spread the load around.
“I do think we'll play more players,” he said. “I think you have to be careful with that, though, that you don't just play guys because you have them. You need to just play harder,” McCollum said.
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