Meet Tony Petitti, the Big Ten’s New Commissioner

The former MLB and TV executive may technically be an NCAA outsider, but he has plenty of experience adjacent to college sports.

The Big Ten has a new commissioner. And college athletics has its newest power player.

Tony Petitti takes over for Kevin Warren in what many would describe as one of the most powerful positions in all of college sports. Petitti will preside over one of the country’s richest and most successful college conferences.

While most view Warren’s tenure as a roller coaster ride—the lows of the COVID cancellation to the highs of a multi-billion dollar TV deal—Petitti walks into a stable and lucrative gig. The league recently agreed to that aforementioned television contract with Fox, NBC and CBS for more than $1 billion a year and secured the addition of expansion members USC and UCLA.

As one college sports insider describes it, Petitti is a safe and solid hire who needs to only “keep the [Big Ten] train running on time.”

The work starts soon. Warren’s last day is Friday, and CFP commissioners meet in Dallas in late April to begin finalizing the 2024 and 2025 expanded playoffs as well as looking to 2026 and beyond. 

So, who is this new conductor of the Big Ten train? Few in college athletics are familiar with him, so let’s find out more together.

Petitti previously served as the COO of Major League Baseball, succeeding MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in that role :: Alex Trautwig/Getty Images

Bio

Petitti is from Queens, New York. He earned an economics degree from Haverford College, a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, before earning a law degree at Harvard. He played on the Haverford baseball team as a catcher, and he’s a lifelong college football fan, according to a 2005 interview with his alma mater.

He hasn’t put to that Harvard Law School degree to use in a while. He worked two years at the New York law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft before joining ABC Sports in 1988 as general attorney.

“I saw it as an opportunity to work at something I loved,” he told his alma mater for a story in 2005. “I knew I didn't feel that way about law.”

Petitti has two daughters.

An “outsider”? Maybe.

For many in college athletics, Petitti is a rather unknown. But the hire of an outsider should not be such a surprise. TurnkeyZRG, a search firm the Big Ten used, also helped in the hires of George Kliavkoff (Pac-12), Brett Yormark (Big 12) and Charlie Baker (NCAA)—all of them outsiders in the industry.

However, some might say that Petitti is not a true outsider of college athletics. He served in senior executive roles at ABC, NBC and CBS, overseeing the rights acquisition deals for a variety of sports leagues and events, including the NFL, March Madness, PGA Tour, SEC football and Little League World Series—and maybe most notably, helped create the Bowl Championship Series to determine college football’s national champion.

During his stint at CBS Sports, Petitti was specifically assigned to handle the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. He also oversaw CBS’s programming of the Super Bowl, which he described in the past as an intensely high pressure situation. That includes the infamous wardrobe malfunction during Janet Jackson’s halftime show in 2004.

Per Haverford, the night of the incident, Petitti arrived home to hear his daughter ask, “Are you going to get fired because of Janet Jackson?”

Prior to joining CBS Sports, Petitti served as senior vice president for negotiations for NBC Sports.

So, in short, he’s well versed in the college athletics world and its relationship with media companies—a bond that has never been more important or more lucrative.

Fore!

Petitti started playing golf in his early 20s with his father on public courses and maintains a 7.1 USGA Handicap Index, according to his profile on the USGA website.
Why does he have a profile on the USGA website? Because Petitti is in his third year as a member of the USGA Executive Committee. He will serve this year on the equipment standards, finance and handicap committees.

In fact, the USGA profile says that Petitti has won 14 Emmy Awards for his role as a TV executive.

MLB

After his TV executive days, Petitti started with Major League Baseball in 2008 to create, launch and oversee programming at MLB Network. He was promoted in 2015 to Chief Operating Officer, replacing Rob Manfred in that role after Manfred became commissioner.

Petitti served as deputy commissioner for business and media from 2017-19. This role included oversight for all digital and MLB Network content, broadcast relationships including all linear and digital media sales and rights negotiations, special events, postseason scheduling, international, youth programs and marketing activities.

He also led MLB’s efforts to bring new diverse youth into the game through programs across the country and expanded the league’s international development initiatives.

Lately

Last year, Petitti joined The 33rd Team, the football analysis company founded by former NFL team executives Joe Banner and Mike Tannenbaum.

The 33rd Team has a roster of about 50 football analysts, most of them retired players and coaches. The site produces about 20 published pieces of content per day. Petitti’s role was to focus on branding and marketing.

Before joining The 33rd Team, he briefly served as the president of sports and entertainment for Activision Blizzard, one of the most successful video gaming studios that Microsoft recently purchased for nearly $70 billion.