INDIANAPOLIS — Pat Fitzgerald was a hard-nosed linebacker at Northwestern in 1995 when the Wildcats ended an improbable season against Southern California in the Rose Bowl.
It represented a traditional matchup between the champions from the Big Ten and the Pac-12, then known as the Pac-10.
But in a couple of years, the schools will be a part of the same conference after the Big Ten added USC and UCLA last month in a drastic round of expansion.
Fitzgerald, who now enters his 17th season as the coach at Northwestern, sees the additions as the latest in a series of shifts within the sport from loosened transfer restrictions to expanded opportunities for players to make money through name, image and likeness.