How a move to the Big Ten will impact Oregon’s basketball program

Conference realignment remains a huge talking point across all college sports after USC and UCLA’s decision to join the Big Ten starting in 2024.

While the move hasn’t spawned any other movement – yet – it does look like a possibility the Oregon Ducks (and potentially the Washington Huskies) will also be out the door and into the Big Ten in the coming years.

While realignment is driven solely by college football, these moves do have an impact on the NCAA’s other big money-maker: men’s basketball.

The Big Ten grabbing UCLA in particular will bolster their basketball pedigree in a significant way. Oregon is now in line to be near the top of the Pac-12 standings, alongside Arizona, but if they were to move to the Big Ten things would get quite a bit tougher.

Here is a look at where each Big Ten team finished last season in the KenPom overall rankings, as well as a look at the program’s overall ranking over the past 25 years. This list also includes USC and UCLA, and Oregon and Washington for comparison purposes.

It paints a picture of a conference that will be very difficult for Oregon to consistently perform well in – although the added revenue from a move like this would help the Ducks continue to recruit at an extremely high level.

Here’s what that basketball conference might look like:

1
UCLA Bruins

Mandatory Credit: Mitchell Leff-USA TODAY Sports

2022 Rank: 7

Rank past 25 years: 14

2
Iowa Hawkeyes

Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

2022 Rank: 13

Rank past 25 years: 40

3
Purdue Boilermakers

Syndication: The Indianapolis Star

2022 Rank: 14

Rank past 25 years: 21

4
Illinois Fighting Illini

Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

2022 Rank: 17

Rank past 25 years: 15

5
Ohio State Buckeyes

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

2022 Rank: 32

Rank past 25 years: 10

6
Michigan Wolverines

Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

2022 Rank: 33

Rank past 25 years: 13

7
Wisconsin Badgers

Syndication: Journal Sentinel

2022 Rank: 34

Rank past 25…