There's a whole lot of change coming to college football and the Big Ten this year, not the least of which is four new teams. Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington will all crash the party in the heartland this season and you have to believe there will at least be a little bit of adjustment for the teams coming from the West Coast.
But how much different will it really be? Fox College Football analyst Joel Klatt sat down with Oregon head coach Dan Lanning to discuss the differences he expects moving to the Big Ten, and Lanning had some interesting things to say.
"I think there are pieces of flavor that are really similar (as the Pac-12) ... the Pac-12 was as good as any conference in college football last year in many ways, and you saw one of the best seasons," Lanning said. "But we had some teams that played a physical brand of football in Utah and Oregon State that lined up in some unique personnel groups. But certainly, Michigan is different with the brand of football they play."
Lanning also thinks the nicer climate out west will provide some unique challenges when it comes to playing in certain locations later in the season and what to expect.
"I think the weather's going to come into play a little bit more with some of the places we'll travel and the times of year that we're traveling there," Lanning continued. "So that'll be something that's different, but you don't necessarily control that, right? So, trying to find moments to go practice in those conditions even when you don't need to, or feel like you need to. You need to take advantage of a bad weather day to make sure you're going to practice in that because you don't experience that in this conference."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"The Pac-12 was as good as any other conference last year."<a href="https://twitter.com/CoachDanLanning?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoachDanLanning</a> talks about what to expect with transitioning to the Big Ten 👌 <a href="https://t.co/SRGdfkTXlw">pic.twitter.com/SRGdfkTXlw</a></p>— The Joel Klatt Show: A CFB Pod (@JoelKlattShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoelKlattShow/status/1818391116414435472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I do feel like the different styles in each conference are a little overplayed and agree with Lanning here. The defenses might be a little better in the Big Ten, but the Pac-12 was plenty physical enough for the West Coast teams to figure it out. The weather though? Yeah, that might be a great equalizer in places like Minneapolis and Madison when mid to late November rolls around. That's going to be an interesting storyline to watch as it unfolds.