University Of Oregon President Hiring Might Be A Sign Of Imminent Big Ten Move

New University of Oregon president John Karl Scholz has deep ties to the Big Ten.

Scholz was officially announced as the new president of the university Monday after previously being the provost at the University of Wisconsin.

While university president hirings might not matter much, this one might matter a ton when it comes to expansion. Why? He was a huge supporter of the Big Ten expanding and scooping up USC and UCLA this past summer when he was at Wisconsin.

New University of Oregon president John Karl Scholz supported Big Ten expansion at Wisconsin. (Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"This expansion helps solidify the Big Ten Conference as the one, true national powerhouse conference, with member universities, teams and fans stretching from coast to coast. As importantly, it adds two outstanding academic institutions to the Big Ten, the premier Power Five academic conference in the country," Scholz said last summer when talking about the additions, according to Oregon Live.

However, he did hedge now that he has a new role with the Ducks.

Will Oregon join the Big Ten?

While Scholz was a huge fan of expanding the Big Ten and dominating college sports while in Madison, he didn't exactly jump with the same enthusiasm now that he's in Eugene.

"I cannot answer that question right now. I am a hardcore Oregon Duck now; so I very much want to see what’s in the best interest of this university," Scholz explained when asked about Oregon's conference preference moving forward, according to the same Oregon Live report.

Read into that as much as you want. His comment about "what’s in the best interest of this university" could definitely be taken as a sign it's time to start looking elsewhere.

Will Oregon join the Big Ten? (Photo by Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)

The PAC-12 so far has failed to land a new media deal, and even if the conference does, it won't come near the Big Ten's new media rights deal. The B1G will earn at least $1 billion annually.

Even for a reduced payout, Oregon will be better off in the Big Ten than the PAC-12. You know who almost certainly agreed as of last summer? John Karl Scholz.

I hate to go full CIA analyst here, but John Karl Scholz now running Oregon definitely makes you think the odds of a split from the PAC-12 have increased. That's speculation on my part, but reading the tea leaves, there's certainly lots of intrigue.