MINNEAPOLIS — Tony Petitti’s sixth anniversary since being hired as Big Ten commissioner will be Wednesday, and this semester has been marked by significant changes to the college sports landscape.
From adding Washington and Oregon to finalizing media rights deals to working with other commissioners on a 12-team College Football Playoff, Petitti barely had time to spend a honeymoon after its May 15 start date.
“I feel absolutely privileged to have this position. Really,” Petitti said. “It’s an incredible responsibility. You see it and feel it every time you’re on campus.
Petitti spoke with Athleticism as part of Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball media days at Target Center, which will host the women’s tournament for the second straight year and the men’s tournament for the first time. There were many topics to discuss, ranging from 2024 football schedules to current and future basketball plans to locations of future postseason venues. With that, here are 10 big topics covered by Petitti on Monday.
Future football schedules
The Big Ten revealed its conference football opponents from 2024 to 2028 last week, and Petitti liked the way it was organized. For him, the confluence of implementing a fair conference-wide schedule while maintaining traditional rivalries in an unorthodox way made the entire operation a victory.
Each Big Ten team will play the other 17 at least twice over the next five years. There are 12 protected annual rivalries, ranging from Iowa keeping three to State of Pennsylvania with none.
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“The real art was the fact that they were able to salute both competitive balance and tradition,” Petitti said. “To achieve this, they did something that probably wasn’t the first place one would go. We don’t have all schools (with) the same number of protected confrontations. Your first planning instinct, based on my experience, would have been to try the same structure all the way through, but that’s not what happened. This was incredibly smart because it allows you to achieve competitive balance. And then there’s a third thing that’s really important, which is that it allows you to see everyone more frequently. So, for me, it’s really well done.
National exhibition
Perhaps what excites Petitti most is how the calendar will be presented to his media partners. Some of the most high-profile matchups involving newcomers include USC at Michigan, Oregon at Michigan, state of ohio at Oregon, Penn State at USC, Washington at Iowa, Nebraska at USC and Oregon at Wisconsin. Then there are games involving historical members such as Michigan at Ohio State, Ohio State at Penn State and Wisconsin at Iowa as well as traditional in-state rivalry games.
“When you saw the schedule that came out the other day, it shows you how efficiently we’re going to be able to schedule this whole exhibit,” Petitti said. “We have the windows and the reach. But the second part is making sure we put on great games wherever we can, and I think we’re doing that now. This will go to another level next year.
“We look at the depth of the games that we’re talking about, like that’s just going to make each of these broadcasts even stronger. We are off to a good start. This is the right model. I think it’s unprecedented.
Friday night lights
This current season, the Big Ten has broadcast five games on Friday nights, not including next month’s Black Friday doubleheader. With Fox stepping up to help the conference add Oregon And WashingtonThe Big Ten will broadcast nine or more games on Fridays in 2024 on Fox properties.
“It will be significant in terms of the amount of national exposure we will have Friday night on Fox,” Petitti said.
Some schools, like Michigan, will not compete Friday. Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa have logistical challenges that prevent them from hosting except in specific circumstances. There will also be Saturday primetime kickoffs on the West Coast, but not every week.
Growing pains
With the Big Ten’s new media rights deal, nine football games will be broadcast on Peacock, requiring consumers to pay for a subscription beyond their traditional cable or satellite bill. Ohio State, for example, plays Purdue on Peacock this week, the first time since the mid-1990s that the Buckeyes will not appear on linear television.
“There’s no doubt we’re asking fans to be in multiple locations if they want to watch the whole thing,” Petitti said. “We want them to watch everything. So we want them to be everywhere.
“I think what we can do is express the fact that we still want to make it as easy as possible for our fans, and that’s what we emphasize. Promote it properly and tell them how to find it. Make it as simple as possible.
Exposure to women’s sports
With record audiences for last season’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament, with nearly 10 million viewers watching Iowa play. LSU and rising numbers throughout the 2022-23 regular season, the Big Ten has a chance to build on that success.
This year, NBC and Fox will each broadcast Big Ten women’s basketball games, and CBS will broadcast the league championship game. In addition, Peacock will broadcast 20 games, FS1 will broadcast 11 and BTN will broadcast 50. With 88 games managed by the league – not including rights held by other leagues – this is the most in the history of the league. league.
“Typically, if you’re working on a network as a programmer and you see success, you start thinking about how can I get closer to that? said Petitti, a former executive at ABC and CBS and Major League Baseball Deputy Commissioner. “How can I increase emissions? What can we do to denounce it? What can we do in terms of features to strengthen all of this? So I think that’s the first thing.
“Then on the other hand, and even on the league side, how can we make it easier for those partners to get better access? What can we do to bring fans closer together? How can we expand the reach? How can we get more windows on shows? »
Nebraska volleyball
More than 92,000 fans attended Nebraska volleyball game game at Memorial Stadium, breaking a world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event. Petitti was there too and he left reinvigorated.
“The execution was impeccable,” Petitti said. “I have never been to an event where so many people were so happy. It was absolutely contagious. The crowd, it was like they were playing. And the student-athletes, for them to have that experience, not only at Nebraska but with their opponent that night, like any of that mattered. I’m so happy to be there.
Championship locations
Indianapolis has hosted the Big Ten football championship game since 2011 and has a contract through 2024. Chicago and Indianapolis have mostly split the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, but Madison Square Garden in New York, Washington, DC, Minneapolis and suburban Chicago also hosted the tournaments.
With U.S.C., UCLAWith Washington and Oregon officially joining next August, the Big Ten’s valuable postseason properties have a chance to find new future homes. Petitti did not commit to locations but encouraged communities to bid for these events.
“I think what’s most important is the process, which is to encourage as many places as possible, if they are interested, to express it and put them in a position to make meaningful bids for our tournaments and championships,” Petitti said. “That’s what we’re doing now. And we have a pretty broad geographic area of interest going forward.
Help, not harm, national title hopes
A key part of this location discussion concerns domestic competition. The site should not burden teams in their quest for an NCAA Tournament title or College Football Playoff.
“Coaches and student-athletes think about the whole journey,” Petitti said. “We want to make sure we do the same thing for them, that we put them in that position. So when the women progress from here, they will be in the best position to advance further into the NCAA Tournament and win a national championship. So that’s the strength of the supply. It’s the connection. It’s the excitement that student-athletes and coaches would feel about playing in a particular venue.
But don’t expect the Big Ten to move its men’s basketball championship from No. 1 to CBS’s selection show.
“In the current format, we are going to finish on Sunday,” Petitti said. “That’s not to say that other ideas (couldn’t) be put forward on ways to stay on top. But right now we have the media engagement with CBS to do it, and it’s worked well. »
College Football Playoffs
Expansion of the playoffs from four teams to 12 will happen next season. Commissioners continue to discuss a format that was originally agreed to include the top six conference champions and six at-large bids. But that was before the Pac-12 imploded, with 10 teams leaving for other power conferences. This pushed the discussion to five champions and seven at-large candidates, but no agreement was reached.
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“It’s just too early to say this is going in one direction,” Petitti said. “I’ll just tell you that the group is committed to continuing to discuss this. We understand the appropriate time to make a decision at that time.
Contraction
There is a fantastic discussion that as conferences grow, they will eventually recruit or fire underperforming members. Petitti gave no credence to this idea.
“I never mentioned the idea that we would ever be smaller. We just never talk about it,” Petitti said. “The simplest way to put it is I think the job as commissioner and the job of the staff that we have in the league office is to make sure that the Big Ten is as good tomorrow as it is. “is today. The expansions we have coming contribute to that, but we view this as one league.
(Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
