Jim Delany, Man On Top Of Oil
Jim Delany's retiring in 2020, spurring the usual round of kow-towing to a rich guy who was just in charge of things. Since Delany didn't do anything good, these pieces have to talk about how important he is. And when people talk about Jim Delany as a "transformative" or "influential" figure, this is what they're talking about:
Wait.
Ah, crap. That's not the right graph. This is the right graph.
Maybe this one?
Sorry, sorry, all these graphs look exactly the same, they're hard to pick apart.
Netflix, fractioning audiences, sports is the only live thing a lot of people, etc. Crediting Jim Delany for the Big Ten's revenue surge is crediting Saudi Arabia for being on top of a lot of oil. Delany didn't create the Michigan and Ohio State fanbases. He just exploited them.
And exploit he did, as anyone who's been to a football game in the past decade can attest to. The increase in revenue came with a commensurate increase in commercial time, to the point where there were several stretches in Michigan games where there were more commercials than plays over the course of an entire quarter. Adding injury to injury, one of those games was against Rutgers, and another was against Maryland.
Delany's never-ending quest for revenue made every Big Ten fan's experience worse, and the money then went to everyone except the people actually earning it. While Delany was ruthlessly strip-mining every dollar out of my fandom and yours he was simultaneously asserting that if the courts gave players even a tiny slice of the increased revenue that the Big Ten would drop to DIII, a level that has no scholarships, out of pure spite.
That's who Delany is.
He did indeed sit in one of the most powerful chairs in college athletics for 31 years. He used that perch to reinforce the con of amateurism for his personal benefit. He regularly issued ludicrous proclamations. He spearheaded the Big Ten's fart-sniffing "Legends" and "Leaders" divisions. He added Maryland, an athletic department so out of control it killed one of its football players out of pure negligence, and Rutgers, an athletic department that finishes at the bottom of the standings in almost literally every sport it competes in annually. He did this so he and people like him could have more money. He happily takes personal credit for industry-wide trends.
Whoever replaces him probably won't be any better or braver. But they could hardly be worse.
So you're a fan?
I am no Delaney fan and am glad he is (slowly and with a big payout) going away, but there is worse: Larry Scott - basically Delaney without the competence.
Not saying Delaney is some genius, but it is quite possible to screw up sitting on top of a bunch of oil. See Venezuela, Iraq, Iran just off the top of my head.
There is value is just not screwing up the cards you are dealt, and I think Delaney did a good job of that.
Complaints about commercials are as old as commercial TV, that's just a non-issue. It doesn't seem any worse today than 30 years ago. A TD near a quarter end has always been a parade of commercials breaks, pro or college. At least now DVRs exist.
I think it’s too early to say how badly he screwed things up. Chavez died a hero to many. He certainly made the fan experience worse. If that ever shows up in revenue remains to be seen, but the cracks are there.
Someone handed him the Big Ten and said "don't break it". You could say he did his job.
Regarding commercials: are you serious? Games are absolutely lasting longer now. College games, in particular, are averaging 3:24. In just 2008, that average was 3:08. They are absolutely longer.
teams pass a lot more which stops the clock. that's likely a bigger factor than commercials for longer game times.
i am all for those quick 10-15 sec split-screen commercials during the games (ie. when the team huddles), if it means fewer commercial breaks.
I'd like to see this. Problem would be, what about the teams that don't huddle, but stand at the line for 25 seconds playing charades.
I don't imagine game time will be addressed until TV ratings start to decline, or level off in aggregate.
What you say is true... in 2000! With the rule changes, the clock runs much, much more than it used to. The difference in game length is totally commercials and not play clock related.
Game clock still has 60 minutes spread over 4-15 minute quarters...
Pass heavy offenses existed 35 years ago.
It absolutely is worse than 30 years ago.
I think this is mixing up the thing measured. Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. absolutely have more total wealth when oil is being pumped out than when it wasn't. Does that mean that the country is better off for the typical person? Absolutely not. For nations that do not have a well-established democracy (and even some that do), it puts a very large amount of wealth in a very few hands, which makes dictatorship and bad governance more likely. I think the metaphor here works. Having more money coming in actually enabled and exacerbated Delaney's bad governance.
You're gonna have to read some books on how imperialism works before you claim those countries simply screwed up their attempts to capitalize on their mineral wealth.
If by screwing up you mean having to deal with multiple US attempts to overthrow your government to take your oil, then yes, those countries screwed up big time.
Uh, Delany left a lot to be desired, but just try to imagine where the B1G would be if Dave Brandon had been Commissioner for 31 years.
And we have a winner! Lock the thread.
Toys R Us?
We would be as relevant as the Big East in Football. Or worse.
March 12th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
I think if you switch the two nothing much changes. The reason the Pac 12 is in the shape it is isn't Scott really, it's because it's a shit conference full of schools that don't really care about sports all that much in tiny TV markets.
Scott's big move was to add Texas and Texas A&M, and if Texas hadn't been run by complete idiots it would have worked and we'd all be sucking him off for it. He can't help the conference he works for has Washington State and Oregon State in it, and its best team is in a huge metro market that only cares when they're winning.
If he had Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State, his idea for 100% ownership would have maybe made the league even more money to be spent on 27 assistants to the athletic director.
*slow clapping*
BRAVO, Brian! Now THAT is one of your best columns EVER!!
Cheers!! Whistle, whistle, clap clap!!
Hold that thought while we have a word from one of our sponsors.....
"He did this so he and people like him could have more money." ?
one need only look to pac-12 headquarters to see how it could be worse.
however.
that jim delaney still lives, thus depriving me of an opportunity to take a long and satisfying piss on his grave, is just one of my ongoing daily disappointments.
i may be exaggerating. a bit.
The Pac12 is worse because no one on the West Coast cares about sports. As Brian said, Delany didn't invent the Michigan and OSU fanbases.
Plus, on much of the west coast fans can go surfing or on an Alpine hike in February instead of watching Pac 12 Network. In the Midwest they'll gladly scarf a bowl of cheese curds and watch Iowa-Nebraska wrestling on BTN.
The Pac-12 is only worse because they've somehow fucked up the money grab. But make no mistake, their money-grabbing intentions (for people like themselves, which is a great phrase) are pure.
If they weren't jealous peers, Delaney would be an aspirational model for them, the university mandarin equivalent of the CEO titan. In that regard, Brian's post applies to all of these prick conference admins, who have profited off of fan devotion for a workforce that hasn't shared in the massive revenue growth (except incidentally through facilities). Yes, there's some mix of devotion to university and player, so that can be argued. But what can't be argued is that all of the cash has gone to one and not the other.
whoops, i got my 'piss on his grave' take mixed up with henry kissinger.
delaney is a turd, though.
Where did the comedian/masturbator stand on this vital piece of once-banned nutritional sustenance?
What kind of a monster applies their cream cheese like that?
The same guy who utilizes the “under” position for his toilet paper roll, a serial killer.....
Ehhhh....he's alright.
Apparently some don't get sarcasm.
The main thing I can think of on the positive side is the creation of the B1G network.
The main thing on the negative side aside the obvious (i.e., the addition of Rugters and Maryland and arguably the addition of Penn State and Nebraska) was his threatening to move The Game to earlier in the season.
Yes, he did start BTN, but it is eons behind the SEC Network and I assume will be eons behind the ACC Network once that starts this fall, too.
Not sure why you assume everyone else’s product was or will be better than the B10 network. It was an innovative $$$ grab that everyone tried to copy. The Pac10 fell on its face and the Longhorn network arguably blew up an entire conference.
Lots of kids are born rich. They don’t all stay rich. The B10 is still filthy rich. For better or worse, the commish still has the B10 as the premier destination for most every university president considering realignment.
While I personally
No longer watch the NFL, Sec football and can barely make it through watching my Beloved M football due to commercials and commercialization of these games
Your charts tell a story of what any commissioner hopes to accomplish.
31 years tells you Delaney's bosses were more than pleased.
I think the charts illustrate that the hopes of any commissioner is to exist as a commissioner.
The point is that “accomplish” in this instance happens to be “be in charge when increasing TV revenues and expanded access create a giant avalanche of cash."
And you do know there is an ad for “Dinnerly” right in the middle of your user-created comment. Everyone is just trying to make a buck on the backs of the minions.
Logged in to upvote (or imaginary +1 to OP) for TRUTH.
Yes Brian.
And more fundamentally, i.e., evolutionarily, i.e., taking one's pattern recognition from the 4.54 billion year sample space of evolution: World culture's dominant app—people deploying monetary code—can't generate selectable relationships in-&-across Geo Eco Bio Cultural & Tech networks, and across Time.
Exhibits A & B: Sky; Ocean.
The app's information-processing competence lacks Reach Speed Accuracy Power & is often used to throttle Creativity... all of which are fundamental info-processing criteria for passing selection tests.
Verily, if your culture's relationships with the Sky & Ocean are deadly, your cultural genome sucks.
What language is this?
"Verily" is the clue you're looking for... it's from Shakespeare's The Tempest
I don't think he's asking about the word verily specifically, which has been used in many, many places aside from The Tempest and is older than Shakespeare.
this => joke
did you really think anyone would read that above and assume the post I was replying to (which, also a joke btw) was asking about one specific word
My bad: I didn't think it was funny, so I assumed it wasn't a joke.
sounds like something written with a deepak chopra random quote generator.
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