Photo courtesy of Big Ten Conference
A Wish List for New Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti
A change in leadership means the potential for the league to take another step forward.
The Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors on Wednesday announced Tony Petitti as the next league commissioner. He'll take over for Kevin Warren in May.
While Warren carries a mixed legacy of how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled through a massive media rights deal, Petitti takes over a much different Big Ten than the one Jim Delany left at the beginning of 2020.
Here is my wishlist for new Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti.
Modernize officiating
We have to start with perhaps the biggest gripe from fans—at least on social media—in how games are officiated. Since the NCAA puts the onus for officiating on the leagues, call up Greg Sankey and lead the way here.
Full. Time. Officials.
Organize among the conference how to pay an annual salary for officials depending on the games they get during the regular season. Create tiers:
- Big Ten, SEC
- Pac-12, Big XII, ACC
- Group of Five
- FCS
Help everyone get better through the offseason. Develop those officials that are working Division I games so that the product is the best it possibly can be. The Big Ten talks a big game in leading the way. This is a chance to do so in a way that creates a better product across the entirety of collegiate athletics.
And not just for football, work this into as many sports as you can.
Incentivize NIL for major sports
Football is your baby. Next in line: men's and women's basketball. A few places have increased support for volleyball or another sport but let's start with just football and basketball.
When USC and UCLA join the league, you'll have 1,776 scholarship athletes between the 16 schools (85 football, 13 for each of men's and women's basketball). Give the league a baseline for Name, Image, Likeness earnings with $10,000 for each scholarship athlete across those 48 teams. That would cost the league $17,760,000 a year, which would take about $1.1 million from each intuition's annual share.
Is losing more than a million dollars of annual share exciting at face value? No. Is giving your entire league a leg up on competition by guaranteeing a baseline amount to scholarship athletes worth it? Absolutely. You're the commissioner. Convince each member institution that this is best for the league.
Improve Big Ten Network/BTN+ production
Hiding a bunch of volleyball, women's basketball, softball and baseball games on BTN+ is one thing, but when those productions are less than terrible, your product isn't worth the subscription. Volleyball matches shouldn't look like a parent is holding a camcorder in the tenth row and baseball games shouldn't appear to be an iPad set against the netting behind home plate.
Schools need to take their camera and production setup seriously. Make them do so.
Additionally, this is the premier volleyball league in the country right now, more games should be on TV. So should more women's basketball games, with the national runner-up and best player in the country in your backyard, plus two other teams making the Elite Eight this last year. Baseball and softball can grow with more eyes on games.
How can you do this with Big Ten Network full up on games? BTN2.
A second national TV channel. You have plenty of programming from B1G Moment and classic games, so create a space away from BTN+ to showcase your volleyball, women's basketball, softball, baseball, etc. even more. There will be 16 schools in the league next year and likely more in the years to come. Adding BTN2 next to Big Ten Network creates a TV channel for the additional inventory that puts the brand in more households.
Prioritize baseball
Nebraska cares about baseball. Michigan was in the College World Series championship series in 2019. There are good programs that can't change the latitude of their home fields.
As someone with MLB experience, where plenty of successful teams are plastered across Big Ten territory, work to make this a top-three league for the sport. Right now, the ACC, Big XII, Pac-12, and SEC all do better in the sport. Being a northern conference should not preclude the Big Ten from having multiple top-25 teams annually. There are currently zero ranked teams, though Indiana is No. 14 in RPI.
The league took a step forward in competitiveness with the addition of Nebraska. USC and UCLA joining the league should create another bump. But the commissioner openly expressing a desire for better baseball should spur member schools to take their programs from abysmal to at least competitive with these other leagues.
Realignment
Movement across leagues is far from finished. Notre Dame is your jewel. There are plenty of pretty gems all over the place that make sense, but the Irish are the one you can't let get away. The SEC will also be pushing to hoard top programs in this likely race to 24 team super leagues. Land Notre Dame and your legacy will be cemented.
