As if there wasn't enough to talk about with Week 1 of the season officially kicking off on Thursday night (and Nebraska football's season kicking off with it), a brand new topic surfaced on Wednesday morning. Talk of more Big Ten expansion in the near future is back on the table.
The latest talk about the conference adding more teams actually surfaced before Wednesday morning. Earlier this week, new Maryland athletic director Jim Smith shed some light on where he thinks things will be in 2030. The Terps leader said he believes the Big Ten will grow to 20 teams. While he didn't say precisely which two teams the 18-team Big Ten will add, On3's Brett McMurphy believes he knows who might be on the agenda.
Big Ten expansion rumors: Tony Petitti’s plans and what they mean for Nebraska
McMurphy wrote an article stating that he feels as though the B1G will reach out to the ACC in order to pull in those two teams. While the conference would love to add Notre Dame, McMurphy believes it's implausible the Irish will ever join a conference until it's forced to, and that's not likely to happen by 2030. That means that the reporter believes the Nebraska football team could have a couple of new rivals in North Carolina and Virginia.
North Carolina has been mentioned before as a possible addition to the Big Ten before. It's believed the conference would like to add AAU institutions, as most of the B1G (outside of Nebraska) now are. That would indeed be the Tar Heels and the Cavaliers.
At the moment, this is once again all just talk. A lot of things can change in five years. But Big Ten expansion in general is likely coming sooner, rather than later, and Nebraska football will at some point have a few new rivals to deal with.