Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith believes in the Big Ten and SEC being separated from the rest of college football.

Smith spoke about the progress the two conference have made in a press conference on Friday in Columbus (via On3 Sports):

“The Big Ten and the SEC frankly separated themselves prior to this,” Smith said. “Prior to Texas and Oklahoma. Prior to USC and UCLA. Our conferences had separated themselves a long time ago. So, this contributes to that separation. So, we’ve always been the two premiere conferences in the country, for a lot of different reasons. This solidifies that even more.”

He pointed out how the addition of new schools were just the latest improvements made by the Big Ten and the SEC. Smith saw years of separation from the rest of the conferences.

Smith, who has been Ohio State’s athletic director since 2005, will be seeing more growth in the Big Ten over the next few years. Smith wanted to make it clear that the additions of USC and UCLA were not a direct response to the SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma.

“We weren’t doing it in response to the SEC, we were doing it for our needs. And obviously we’re in a situation now where Kevin [Warren] has done a marvelous job in facilitating discussions with our television partners and this helps move the needle in that regard. So, it had nothing to do with Texas and Oklahoma, or [the Big Ten] setting up mega-conferences for the future,” Smith said.

The Big Ten could be looking to add more schools to the conference.