Report (Thamel): New Big Ten Commissioner - Tony Petitti
EGJ, how big should the B1G conference be? We’re at 16 teams with the addition of UCLA and USC. Should the size be… 18, 20, 22, or another number?
16 unless Notre Dame wants in. 18 then.
April 11th, 2023 at 11:22 PM ^
I'm thinking the roulette ball stops at 20. Four pods of five teams, each sensible geographically.
I think they add Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Notre Dame.
IF it looks like the SEC will stop at 24 then maybe they go after Cal and an ACC raid of teams like North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Duke, Virginia or even Pitt.
Maybe 24 .. with the ACC raid you mentioned resulting in four pods of six….
Or… 28 with four pods of seven?
April 12th, 2023 at 10:31 AM ^
I was thinking four pods of six, yes.
West: Cal, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington
Central: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin
Great Lakes: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue
East: Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, three from the ACC.
I find this very interesting - and, would agree. Of the ACC teams, a question arises - which three?
Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Boston College? Virginia and Duke would definitely be in consideration.
I would not be surprised if the number is 24.
I was originally for them joining. Solid sports, AAU, pretty good media market. Seattle B1G alumni base. Washington is an R&D powerhouse. Partners for LA teams. But Orgeon is not an academic powerhouse, travel costs AND the PNW is NOT a recruiting hot bed. It would lessen the size of the pie for current members... not grow it. Plus it would be the death of a sister conference. I'm on the fence with this one.
The PAC12 is on hospice. Their next TV deal is going to be with the CW. Get the teams that matter and do well before they get poached. If Washington and Oregon are a package deal, I do that all day. Recruiting is national, so you don’t really need the hotbed angle. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to some of the other schools. How many flagship universities of large populous states aren’t in a large conference? What happens to Cal, Zona, etc.?
April 11th, 2023 at 10:27 PM ^
Unfortunately it’s a math problem, can’t add schools dilutive to the per school rev share as opposed to any other commonality.
April 11th, 2023 at 11:38 PM ^
They'd have to get a smaller piece of the pie, I'd think. I wonder if there's a way to renegotiate the TV deal based on the condition of UW and OU joining.
I don’t think the B1G will ever accept an unequal share of the pie for any member team. Balance and equity are essential to the togetherness.
If there’s a concern about per school “share” going down at all - then, the only possible addition is (most likely) ND. But, ND wants their independence in football - and, I doubt that will EVER change.
And, you would hope the B1G leadership was smart enough to provide for some flexibility in the media agreement.
Given his long career in the TV sports industry, I’ll guess that the commercial interruptions of football games that we all love so much will become even more frequent and intrusive.
Onward imperialism!
We've always been at war with Oceania!
wait til he learns it's not all esports
With his background he is very likely to know how to handle Oregon, Washington, and possibly Cal and Stanford, in regards to getting them into the BIG10 better than Kevin Warren. Oh yeah, and Notre Dame too.
Hearing JH is planning on taking him out for hamburgers in AA.
So, he was an executive leader at Activision Blizzard in 2020 & 2021.
And, in 2021, after a two-year investigation, a huge-ass lawsuit was filed against Activision Blizzard --- the lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, employment discrimination, and retaliation on the part of the company. The details of the allegations involve accusations of inappropriate behavior towards women and fostering a "frat boy culture."
I don't know what to make of those two facts together. Not every Exec there would be guilty of course, but Activision Blizzard has become a rather toxic name of late in the gaming industry.
Hello, Oregon and Washington
He's the tits. The titti if you will. And I will.
April 11th, 2023 at 11:26 PM ^
I'm a little worried. His background reminds me of Larry Scott (former Pac-12 commissioner who is basically responsible for wrecking that conference). Scott had zero experience with collegiate athletics, football, or basketball before he took the Pac-12 job.
April 11th, 2023 at 11:41 PM ^
I hope we have a stronger stable of ADs/Presidents in the B1G to tell him "NO" to any bad ideas. Considering how short Warren's tenure was, Petitti might not be here long enough to negotiate the next TV deal.
Personally, I would like to see Petitti and the B1G “take the lead” in some areas that are of interest to college sports fans. It could be rules, officiating, a standard for NIL, a suggested approach to transfers (e,g, first transfer is free - the second / subsequent sit for a year), a portion of media monies to student athletes, etc..
Don’t know anything about him. Hate him already.