Luke Fickell excited about Big Ten becoming ‘coast-to-coast’ conference by adding Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington

With the addition of four new members into the Big Ten conference (that includes our beloved Oregon Ducks, folks), there are plenty of people with big opinions on the matter. Few of those opinions actually matter all that much, but for the Oregon football team, it’s genuinely pretty interesting to see what other members of the Big Ten are saying.

That includes the head coaches of various other programs in the Big Ten. Like, you know, Luke Fickell of the Wisconsin Badgers. Fickell seems like a very “Midwest” sort of guy, but he seems pretty excited about the addition of some new teams from the West Coast being thrown into the mix.

If for nothing else it’s because he’s no longer the “new guy” in the conference. Because, well, as Fickell describes, everyone is pretty new to this brand new Big Ten that now has the Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies, UCLA Bruins, and USC Trojans. 

"We're excited to not be the new guy because everybody is new,” Fickell explained. “Even [Iowa Hawkeyes] Coach Ferentz, who has been here for quite a while, is new to what I call this coast-to-coast Big Ten."

Oregon football to the Big Ten: Wisconsin Badgers’ Luke Fickell excited about Big Ten’s growth

That seems pretty fair, to be honest. 

The Big Ten is in a bit of an interesting place. From the outside looking in, things seemed a little odd when the conference expanded to bring in some East Coast teams about a decade ago. Now with the addition of the Ducks, Huskies, Bruins, and Trojans, the Big Ten now spans the entire width of the continental US. That’s a lot of ground to cover. 

But Fickell’s excitement is cool to see. Especially considering that he’s coaching at one of the Big Ten’s older, more traditional brands.

“I think it's incredibly exciting to be a part of, and I know for some traditionalists, with all the things that I have always understood about the Big Ten, that we're not losing those things,” Fickell stated. “We're only growing. We're only gaining. We're only starting to add to some new histories and traditions and rivalries that I think are going to make our sport that much better.”

There are a ton of folks who don’t necessarily see this sort of growth as a good thing. But Fickell does. And since Oregon is a huge reason for the new changes that are coming to the Big Ten, it’s great to see someone like Fickell welcoming those changes with open arms. 

It’s to be determined if some of these new changes will actually make college football better, but there’s certainly a chance that that’s the case.