The Big Ten has made it possible for Oregon and Washington to apply for membership into the Big Ten conference, according to AP.

The Ducks and the Huskies still need to officially apply for membership into the conference and the Big Ten presidents need to officially approve of the moves.

University of Nebraska System President Ted Carter, UNL Chancellor Dr. Rodney Bennett and Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Trev Alberts released a joint statement following the announcement:

“Today marks an exciting moment in history for the Big Ten Conference and the University of Nebraska. The landscape of college athletics continues to quickly evolve and adding Oregon and Washington further establishes the Big Ten as the preeminent conference in the country. These are two great institutions with highly recognizable brands that expands the Conference footprint to the Pacific Northwest. Nebraska has a large alumni base on the West Coast and the new additions will allow our fans in another region of the country to watch the Huskers compete on a more regular basis. Adding two highly respected universities to the Big Ten will also create exciting new opportunities for our faculty, staff and students to partner with world-class colleagues in research and academics. We welcome Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten Conference and look forward to competing and collaborating with them in the future.”

This comes after Pac-12 leaders met early Friday to discuss if the nine remaining schools would accept the potential media rights deal with Apple, according to AP. 

"Our schools are committed to each other and to the Pac-12. We'll get our media rights deal done, we'll announce the deal. I think the realignment that's going on in college athletics will come to an end for this cycle," Commissioner George Kilavkoff said at the Pac-12 media day last month.

This discussion comes just days after Colorado moved to the Big 12 and nearly a year after UCLA and USC moved to the Big Ten. Arizona and Utah are currently making decisions on whether they want to move to the Big 12 as well.

The Pac-12 conference could be moved down to just four teams: Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and California.

This would make the Big Ten the biggest conference in the nation with 18 teams, spanning from the east coast to the west coast.

As the football season gets closer, decisions will need to be made by the remaining Pac-12 schools whether they want to stay in the conference or leave.