INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Big Ten Conference is bigger than ever, so is Media Days.

Now featuring 18 teams over three days, it all started with the commissioner on Tuesday. Tony Petitti praised new members USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon.

“I think the fit of the four, obviously we’re here to talk about football, when you go beyond that for our chancellors and presidents, the academic fit is really important," Petitti said. "If you look at the strength in all other sports that the four new members bring — so it’s a complete match across many different factors.”

Petitti says he sees great strength across matchups with the expanded format and he feels good about the league’s footprint. But what about the possibility to keep adding schools, especially those from the feuding ACC?

“We’re focused on the 18 right now, that’s what we’re focused on," Petitti said. "We had to do a lot of work, a lot of work had been done to integrate USC, UCLA, we started that work over immediately when we added Oregon and Washington. I think we’re really comfortable where we are. We’ve got to get this conference right and that’s where our focus is.”

Keep in mind, he said something similar last year and then the conference added two schools just two weeks later.

With the expanded league comes added TV inventory and more games on Friday nights. This season, that includes at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska will host Illinois on Friday, Sept. 20, a game date and time that has many fans feeling uneasy. Not the commissioner.

“I think Friday is an opportunity for national exposure, so I think you’re going to see some programs really embrace the opportunity to play on Friday," Petitti said. "Of course, we don’t want to burden any one institution. We care about what happens at the stadium as well and what happens on campus.”

Petitti listed accomplishments from the past season, which he described as historic for women's sports.

"It began in August with Volleyball Day in Nebraska where more than 92,000 fans, the largest crowd to ever gather for a women's sporting event, packed Memorial Stadium," Petitti said.

Iowa women's basketball also set an attendance record with a stadium game, Nebraska volleyball's national championship game set an indoor attendance record, and Iowa's national championship basketball game was the most-watched basketball game - men's or womens's - since 2019.

Petitti said Big Ten schools added 20 individual national titles, five team titles, 80 academic all Americans, 114 athletes drafted in pro drafts over the last year. Soon, the conference will have 116 US Olympians the most of any conference, 325 total in Olympics.

"The goal remains to provide Big Ten student athletes with a world-class education and the opportunity to compete at the highest level against the very best competition," Petitti said.

Petitti announced that the Big Ten championship football game will continue to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis through 2028.

The conference will now allow for in-helmet communication in football and video access via iPads on sidelines. It will open a centralized replay center next month.

"It is the most comprehensive of its kind with 18 dedicated replay bays and six dedicated medical observation stations that will allow our staff to review plays while at the same time monitoring health and safety," Petitti said.

Petitti didn't get into specifics about lawsuits that could lead to paying players directly, but said the conference is prepared to build a future model for the game.