In an interactive room on the ground floor of his league’s semi-new headquarters, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren met with two journalists from The Athletic to discuss the problems of a mountain facing college sports .
Since it was almost a question of use, as Warren was willing to leave for his second-floor office, expansion became an issue. “On membership in Big Ten,” Warren was asked, “things go from blue here from time to time. Do you expect (the conference) to stay on the current 14 teams?
Warren began a lengthy response on how he likes the Big Ten’s institutional structure and why the academic approach remains a key principle along with athletic skill. Then he added, “But having said that, just to be aware of the world we live in. We just have to be a little thoughtful and aware. What will be the evolution of college athletics? But right now I’m excited to finish this course. academic with strength “.
Like the unanswered ones, it was vague and purposeful. Six weeks later, Warren’s phrasing seems predictive. On Thursday, the Big Ten welcomed USC and UCLA as its 15th and 16th members, making perhaps the most amazing blow of the realignment era. He was at odds with both his strength and his intimacy. It also left more questions than answers for the Big Ten, its member schools, its newcomers and the rest of the college sports scene. Here are 10 great topics for league officials to reflect on over the next few days and weeks.
Our Lady
Three years after the birth of the Big Ten, the seven founding members held a meeting on December 1, 1899 at the Chicago Beach Hotel to consider expansion. Three Midwestern institutions applied to become members: Indiana, Iowa, and Notre Dame. Indiana and Iowa sent representatives to make a presentation and were accepted as members, joining Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue, Chicago and Illinois. Notre Dame did not send any delegates and their request was denied.
This began a long and sometimes conflicting relationship between the Big Ten and the small Catholic university located east of Chicago. At one point, the Big Ten tried to freeze the Irish, but relations thawed in the 1940s with Notre Dame competing annually in various league programs. In 1999, a century after Notre Dame first considered joining the Big Ten, fiercely independent Irish people rejected an invitation from the Big Ten. But as the tectonic plates of realignment resonate, Notre Dame may consider belonging to the Big Ten if independence means irrelevance.
Media rights
The Big Ten was just weeks away from announcing a lucrative media rights deal that could pay the league more than a billion dollars a year. He had already received the latest releases from NBC, CBS, ESPN and Amazon Prime to join FOX as the holder of Big Ten football rights. Now, the league needs to recalibrate its value with two recognizable brands in the country’s second-largest media market.
The Big Ten and its media partners will now control 72 league-only games (instead of 63) and between 30 and 40 matches without conferences (from 25 to 35). The league already had some of the highest rated college football games in the country, but now there is a chance that USC and UCLA will face Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and other Big Ten teams in regular season clashes. of great bets. The new additions will alter negotiations and are likely to change the announcement schedule from mid-July to September. Ultimately, adding Los Angeles-based universities could help the Big Ten disperse significantly more revenue than the $ 55 million it currently offers its institutions.
Domino effect
A day after USC and UCLA were announced as future members of the Big Ten, the Pac-12 announced that it would seek candidates for expansion. The remaining 10 issued statements expressing their disappointment at the schools marching towards the Big Ten. What none of them mentioned is what they would do with the opportunity to join the Big Ten.
Several Pac-12 programs carry academic and football profiles worthy of discussion in Big Ten circles, such as Washington, Oregon, Arizona State, and Utah. It is also poured into the ACC, where other universities fit this profile. The question is whether the Big Ten are considering adding UCLA and USC as a singular move or just the first save in a change concert?
Divisions and schedules
Administrators seemed willing to abandon the current geographic divisional structure and these thoughts have been consolidated now that UCLA and USC have joined the Big Ten. It is ridiculous to suggest that USC would play in a Western Division and then meet with powerful Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan players once every four years each. The Big Ten media partners would do the wrong thing too.
There are questions that persist, however. Would the Big Ten go to an undivided structure in 2023 with its new rights agreement or would it wait until 2024 to change completely when USC and UCLA start competing in football? If the Big Ten is still a 16-team league, would it enact a 3-6-6 schedule with three protected annual opponents and then rotate the other 12 twice over a four-year period? Perhaps at the end of each four-year block, the league could adjust some of these protected series to circulate USC and UCLA through more opponents regularly. The possibilities are endless.
Pac-12 relationships
On November 20, 1946, he began a relationship with the Big Ten Nine Teams and the defunct Pacific Coast Conference by signing a five-year deal to send their champions to the Rose Bowl. He was criticized at the time because West Coast representatives were interested in inviting the army. But the PCC and Big Ten stood firm against criticism. Illinois and Michigan voted against the move and, ironically, played consecutively in the first two bowls hired.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 eventually became like-minded colleagues. They worked together to negotiate television rights in the 1980s and operated the Rose Bowl as co-equal partners alongside the Roses Tournament parade. With the ACC, they joined the short-lived Alliance. This movement clearly alters the landscape between the leagues. The Big Ten is the powerful player and the Pac-12 has become a subordinate.
Rose Bowl
Whether it was a bowl coalition, the bowl championship series, or college football playoffs, the Rose Bowl stood like an oak in the midst of the winds of change. He exerted the most influence and it cost college football games to win it all in 1994 and 1997. The Big Ten and Pac-12 exerted influence to make sure the Rose Bowl stayed first among equals. in time slots and classifications.
No entity was shaken more than the Rose Bowl after USC-UCLA news. The Bruins play their home games at the Rose Bowl. No team has played more bowling than the Trojans. The magnetic attraction that the location had on Big Ten fans will dissipate once the regular season games at UCLA begin. Boldly, the Big Ten and their two newcomers devalued the historic bowl game.
Basketball
Football tops every facet of expansion, but Big Ten basketball fans can’t help but get excited about the usual trips to UCLA’s famous Pauley Pavilion. Likewise, the Bruins should enjoy the possibilities of playing basketball at the Big Ten’s elite venues, such as the Indiana Assembly Hall, Purdue’s Mackey Arena, and Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
The Big Ten has led the nation in attendance at men’s basketball for 45 consecutive seasons (when the pandemic year is eliminated). Both UCLA and USC have extraordinary coaches in Mick Cronin and Andy Enfield, respectively. Your athletes will enjoy more consistent high-level environments and better television exposure than they see on the Pac-12.
olympic sports
Few athletics departments can compare to UCLA and USC when it comes to producing Olympics. It focuses on excellence in low-income sports, from athletics and gymnastics to baseball and softball. While football is the main driver of this expansion, all sports will benefit competitively and in the USC and UCLA exhibition join the Big Ten.
The Big Ten baseball programs have struggled for a long time to win places for NCAA tournaments, including this year, when regular season and tournament runner-up Rutgers failed to qualify despite 44 wins. USC and UCLA should immediately help the league’s RPI, as well as provide recruitment opportunities and warm-up games in March and April.
Travel
This will be a challenge for Big Ten schools, especially outside of football. According to figures obtained by The Athletic through open registration applications, the 13 public universities in the league had an average of more than $ 4.85 million in travel in fiscal year 2021. The cost of charter flights will increase and there will be more commercial flights for the Midwest Olympic sports teams. who usually travels by bus. Costs will also increase for UCLA and USC with longer flights.
It can force league schedules to think differently. It could incorporate travel partners to allow a team to compete against USC and UCLA for a three-day period or do the same for those schools when they travel to Michigan and Michigan State.
BTN
The league’s network has changed its assets from 51 percent when it debuted in 2007 to 49 percent in 2012 to now at 39 percent. It successfully integrated Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers into its orbit during previous expansions and added these markets to the fold. It will try to do the same with USC, UCLA and Southern California and do what the Pac-12 network could not, which is to achieve full market penetration.
(Top photo by Kevin Warren: Michael Conroy / AP)