Makes me want to puke. Hey, Delany, where is our stolen bowl money?
https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...0191217-45oddl7vhjh6vczrerqhxakkki-story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...0191217-45oddl7vhjh6vczrerqhxakkki-story.html
Greenstein thinks we Penn Staters appreciate Jim Delany for letting us in the B1G. Article link:
- Thread starter LealandLoyal
- Start date
“Rutgers is a fabulous institution, as is Maryland. And the corridor they occupy with Penn State might be the most important in the Western world”
Yes, the famed College Park-New Brunswick-University Park corridor. A modern day Appian Way.
What a strange man.
Yes, the famed College Park-New Brunswick-University Park corridor. A modern day Appian Way.
What a strange man.
Jimbo's got my eternal gratitude for the warm embrace of the B1G's "welcome" in the early nineties as well as His merciful tolerance of our continued presence in his precious conference post 2011.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I replied to Greenstein...
LOL..You clearly didn't take a poll of Penn Staters. To put it bluntly, we hate Delaney's guts. This conference cost us a National Championship in 1994 and it robbed us of millions over the Jerry Sandusky Scandal, while later failing to take a cent from Ohio State or Michigan State for their scandals which actually involved Student Athletes!
We can't wait for January 1st!
--------------
Reading, PA
LOL..You clearly didn't take a poll of Penn Staters. To put it bluntly, we hate Delaney's guts. This conference cost us a National Championship in 1994 and it robbed us of millions over the Jerry Sandusky Scandal, while later failing to take a cent from Ohio State or Michigan State for their scandals which actually involved Student Athletes!
We can't wait for January 1st!
--------------
Reading, PA
I hope Delaney's dick goes permanently limp on December 31.
I have no love for Delany, and enjoyed how PSU fans treated him after the 2016 B1G Championship game. That said, I think the anger regarding the bowl money is misplaced. That was more of a B1G College Presidents decision.
More accurately, the anger should be directed toward former President Rodney Ericsson and @PeetzPoolBoy's employer, former BOT Chair Karen Peetz, for agreeing to the penalty.
Of more recent vintage, the anger should be directed toward President Eric Barron. If PSU wanted to recover those funds, the first step would have been to make a request to the B1G College Presidents. Barron is the one that decided not to do that.
Greenstein is a Big Ten shill. If the conference wants a favorable story, someone calls him up, emails the talking points and he writes it. If you think I'm joking, I'm not.
To save you the click:
Jim Delany’s run as Big Ten commissioner ends Jan. 1. And when it comes to his 30-year tenure, he has few regrets — not even adding Rutgers and Maryland.
By TEDDY GREENSTEIN | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | DEC 17, 2019
Jim Delany
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany smiles at the conference's headquarters in Rosemont on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
As Jim Delany exited the Lucas Oil Stadium field with wife Kitty after the Dec. 7 Big Ten championship game, a fan decked in Ohio State gear near the tunnel hollered: “Hey! Best commissioner ever!”
Delany nodded to acknowledge the man known to Buckeyes fans as “Tennessee Jeff” Hamms. But he did not break stride.
“People have yelled good things and bad things,” Delany told the Tribune, chuckling. “It depends oftentimes whether you win or lose. I appreciate fans, but I don’t think commissioners are per se supposed to be popular.”
During his 30 years at the helm of the Big Ten — which officially ends Jan. 1 — Delany’s approval rating has ranged from roughly 0 to 100, depending on the timing and source of opinion.
Big Ten presidents and chancellors worship him for the wads of cash that flow to their campuses each year, allowing them to construct jaw-dropping facilities and offer top dollar to coaches.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany laughs during an interview in his office a Big Ten headquarters Friday in Rosemont. Delany, 71, is stepping down Jan. 1 after 30 years at the helm. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Some Midwestern fans cursed him for rotating the Big Ten basketball tournament to Washington and New York.
Parents of Big Ten soccer and volleyball players should love him whenever they get to watch their kids appear on BTN telecasts.
Hordes of college football fans resented his loyalty to the Rose Bowl over his willingness to greenlight a college football playoff.
Most Penn State and Nebraska fans appreciate him for their inclusion in the conference.
SEC fans howled when he took a shot at the league’s academic standards for football players.
Maryland and Rutgers officials should bow down for the financial lifeline provided.
Social media mocked him when the Big Ten split into “Legends” and “Leaders.”
Ohio State and Michigan football fans must love having Maryland and Rutgers in the conference as the traditional powers deliver whuppings and raid those home bases for talent.
We haven’t even gotten to some of Delany’s other signature moves, such as pioneering instant replay and bowl tie-ins, helping to create the Big Ten-ACC Challenge and the Gavitt Tipoff Games, pushing and sometimes relenting on Friday night football games, adding Johns Hopkins for men’s lacrosse and Notre Dame for men’s hockey.
“No risk, no reward, no guts, no glory,” Delany said during the opening stretch of an 80-minute interview at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont.
Here are 10 takeaways from the interview:
1. Jim Delany, 71, is ready to bounce.
Asked if he felt melancholy as he walked off the field in Indianapolis, Delany replied: “Not at all. Some people go 20 or 25 years. I’ve had the chance to go 30 and could have gotten longer. I told our presidents in ’13: I’ll go to ’15. In ’15 I said I’ll go ’18. At ’18 I’ll go to ’20.
“I just had a sense that this was a good time. I can’t tell you why that’s the case. I don’t want there to be confusion between Jim Delany, the commissioner, and the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten is the Big Ten. It predated me by 90 years and it will postdate me by 100 years.
“I've had a chance to be impactful. I love working with the people I've worked with. Once I decided, the next decision was whether I’d try to influence the search process. I was adamant about that. Nobody influenced the search process when I was hired and I shouldn't try to influence it.”
2. He feels bullish about his successor.
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, left, chats with incoming Commissioner Kevin Warren, right, at the conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
The Big Ten’s transition to Kevin Warren began Sept. 16, and the former Minnesota Vikings executive already has developed a fantastic reputation in the building — friendly, inclusive and quick to pick up lunch tabs.
Although his first day marked a momentous occasion in college sports given that he’s the first African-American commissioner of a Power Five conference, Big Ten officials strangely have kept him out of public view.
Warren has made no public comments or appearances since his introductory news conference in June. Conference officials have taken it to such extremes that last week after I asked for permission to say hello and shake his hand, the request was denied.
Warren has been meeting with key figures that orbit the Big Ten — TV partners, bowl officials, commissioners from other conferences. He is getting to know presidents and chancellors.
“He is ready,” Delany said.
The simplest way to describe his task?
“Our job as a commissioner is to identify problems and potential solutions and then to rally support for those solutions,” Delany said. “If there's no support for those solutions, we don't do it.”
3. His tenure was marked by bold moves.
“If you don’t venture out,” Delany said, “you never gain anything. I don’t want to go back and read all the articles about (criticism for) the Big Ten Network or instant replay or expansion. You have to do what you think is right. And if you make mistakes, you course correct or you double down.”
Take expansion. The Big Ten added Nebraska in 2011 and achieved the right number of teams for a conference title game. But Delany wanted to go bigger.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, center, with Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne, left, and Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman, announces the university's application for membership at June 11, 2010 news conference in Lincoln, Neb. The Cornhuskers joined the conference the next year. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
“We had a tremendous competitive advantage for 50 or 75 years demographically, but when other conferences got larger, our advantage was mitigated,” he said. “If you look at simple demographics, through 2030-2040 (the Midwest is) growing at 1 to 1.5%. (Another conference) might be 3.5 to 4%. You can’t move this operation to Arizona. But you can move it to the East Coast because it’s contiguous, and you have major research institutions.”
OK, but haven’t the 2014 additions of Rutgers and Maryland been a flop? The two were dismal this fall, combining to go 1-17 in Big Ten play (someone had to win their matchup) and were outscored 731-195. And with rampant cord cutting among millennials, isn’t the quality of content more important than market size?
Delany wouldn’t budge, saying: “My view is that it’s absolutely the right decision and absolutely the right place for us to be. I expect that Maryland will continue to be competitive in a lot of sports. Rutgers’ hiring of Schiano is a bold stroke.
“I don’t think people should evaluate this in the short term. But in a 25-year or 50-year period, I think they’re going to be very competitive. They are added value. And if the Big Ten had stayed at 10 and not taken on any of the risk associated with expansion, we probably would be tied for the fourth-largest conference.
“Rutgers is a fabulous institution, as is Maryland. And the corridor they occupy with Penn State might be the most important in the Western world — great students, political institutions, financial institutions. So we’re not only recruiting students to play basketball but students overall.”
4. He wishes to return to the Big Apple.
The New Jersey native who played for North Carolina’s Dean Smith reveres Madison Square Garden. He spearheaded the decision to move the 2018 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament there even though teams had to play a condensed schedule with the Big East having dibs on the second weekend in March.
“It was debated and decided,” Delany said. “I thought it was the right thing to do because it was part of something much larger, our Eastern initiative. I mean, (Johns) Hopkins doesn't (join) by happenstance. We couldn't get to New York except a week earlier. We have an office there.
“While it was painful to jam so many games into such a short period of time, the tournament itself was successful. We sold out a variety of sessions. The players and coaches loved it. It’s a piece of history for the Big Ten. And even though Madison Square Garden has extended (the Big East Tournament) through 2026, our next extension should leave that possibility open (for a return).”
5. He expresses few regrets.
I asked the golf nut to name something for which he would take a mulligan. Delany paused 12 seconds before answering that in his first year, he didn’t collaborate properly with university athletic directors and faculty members regarding Penn State’s integration: “That hurt me in my ability to build trust.”
Hmmm … he wouldn’t take back the “open letter” he wrote in 2017 after Florida spanked Ohio State in the BCS title game, the one in which he wrote: “I love speed and the SEC has great speed, especially on the defensive line, but there are appropriate balances when mixing academics and athletics. … I wish we had six teams among the top-10 recruiting classes every year, but winning our way requires some discipline and restraint."
Delany got filleted for it.
“Yeah, this is one of the things I’ve learned,” he said. “Anybody with access to a microphone who says things that are negative, it tends not to work out in the long run. I do feel good that we’ve had 30 selection processes in the NCAA Tournament. And I think if you check the record, you wouldn’t find anything negative (I’ve commented) about that.”
6. He wants to remind America of the Big Ten’s academic prowess.
We walked to a wall at Big Ten headquarters that displays the conference’s Nobel laureates. Saul Bellow, for example, has graduate degrees from Northwestern and Wisconsin.
“There’s probably not another conference in the country that can produce 25-30% of this,” Delany said.
So the SEC doesn’t have this many?
Delany didn’t respond audibly.
“You can’t quote silence, can you?” he asked.
7. The quote that defines his tenure is: ‘Consider them rolled.’
Delany met with ESPN executives in 2004 with the intention of extending the Big Ten’s media-rights agreement. But when vice president Mark Shapiro lowballed him, Delany threatened to create his own network.
Shapiro: “If you don’t take our offer, you are rolling the dice.”
Delany: “Consider them rolled.”
Turns out the conference had been studying the formation of a network since the late ‘90s, but the dot-com bubble put that on hold.
“ESPN’s position was: You’ve got these five (major) conferences and they all make about the same (revenues). I didn’t think that was true,” Delany said. “But you can’t just think it’s not true. You have to act like it’s not true. And then you may be right or you may be wrong.
“I gave the full opportunity for our presidents and ADs to say: Just negotiate it out and do the best you can. But for me the offer was not acceptable and (the threat to create BTN) was not a head fake.
“Then you have to execute. It was very difficult (sparring with Comcast). But everybody stayed the course. Nobody turned their back on the idea. And they all benefited from it.”
Thanks in part to the network, Big Ten revenue surged to a record $759 million in 2018, $99 million more than the SEC.
8. He is big on protocol.
When thirtysomethings Pat Fitzgerald and Bret Bielema entered the conference as head coaches in 2006, Delany told them to look around the room at future Hall of Famers Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr.
“Give me a sense,” Delany asked them, “of how many times you think they've called me on any matter.”
Maybe 10, they responded.
“No,” Delany replied. “Try zero. We have a supervisor (of officials). I might talk to an athletic director. There is a chain of command.”
As Delany stood by a wall of classic Sports Illustrated covers, he reflected on Indiana’s Bob Knight, saying he “played his own music, his own tunes.”
Jim Delany stands in front of a wall of Sports Illustrated covers featuring Big Ten teams at conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Knight opposed the creation of the Big Ten Tournament, believing there should be one conference champion determined by a full slate of games.
Delany officially won that battle in 1998.
Knight and Ohio State’s Jim O’Brien protested the creation of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, with Knight claiming his future schedules were set: “I am adamantly opposed to having to call someone and say, ‘We’re not going to play.’ Then they have to go and find another game.”
Delany’s compromise: With nine ACC teams and — at the time — 11 in the Big Ten, Ohio State and Indiana sat out the challenge.
Asked to reflect on Knight, Delany said: “I’d say from 1975 to 1990, he was the (game’s) best coach. He won three national championships and I think changed how basketball is played in the Big Ten, from very fast- paced to more disciplined. Never broke the rules. Good on compliance. The students graduated. As a coach he was rough and tough.”
9. He is open to both playoff and conference expansion.
Will it ever make sense for the Big Ten to expand beyond 14 schools?
“That’s hard to say,” Delany replied. “The tectonic plates underlying expansion have cooled off considerably. But there are also some very definitive and big things likely to occur in the next decade — from media agreements to congressional activity. Institutions may have to make choices about how they align and do things. I couldn’t speculate on it, but it wouldn’t shock me. I’m not saying there’s an absolute size that makes sense. But even at 14, it’s hard to keep round-robin competition.”
What is the best number for the College Football Playoff? After the Big Ten failed to get its champion in the playoff in 2018 for the third straight season, Delany declared an openness to discuss new structures.
Last week Delany put it like this: “I don’t mind being left out (in a four-team playoff), but I do think that the compromise we fought for has not been well-administered.
“The eye test was never mentioned in the instructions for the selection of the team. The résumé was mentioned over and over and the strength of schedule over and over and the conference championships over and over and common opponents over and over. But the eye test was never mentioned.”
Delany said if a structural change is made before the 12-year agreement ends in 2026, it would be very complicated because of TV and bowl contracts. Plus he pointed to a “games issue” and “date issue.”
Are 16 games too many for non-salaried players? Is it wrong to play quarterfinal games around finals or extend the season past mid-January?
“It would be a compromise with various points of view,” he said. “But I won't be engaged in that compromise.”
This much is clear: Big Ten officials were steamed a year ago when the College Football Playoff committee ranked Georgia fifth and Ohio State sixth. The Buckeyes won their conference title game; the Bulldogs lost theirs.
10. He has more mountains to climb.
Delany has hiked Machu Picchu and scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. An Everest base-camp jaunt (approx. 17,000 feet) is the next goal.
“It’s a great way to test yourself, to see another culture,” he said. “It’s fun to travel. And it gives you an objective, puts you on a three- to four-month period of training.”
Delany will be moving to Nashville, Tenn., and plans to lecture at universities.
He’s a scrappy golfer who thrives under pressure, especially when he’s getting shots because of his high handicap.
“A lot of people call me ‘5-for-4’ because, at best, it’s usually a net birdie,” he joked. “You can take away the winning, just don’t take away the competition.”
Jim Delany’s run as Big Ten commissioner ends Jan. 1. And when it comes to his 30-year tenure, he has few regrets — not even adding Rutgers and Maryland.
By TEDDY GREENSTEIN | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | DEC 17, 2019
Jim Delany
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany smiles at the conference's headquarters in Rosemont on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
As Jim Delany exited the Lucas Oil Stadium field with wife Kitty after the Dec. 7 Big Ten championship game, a fan decked in Ohio State gear near the tunnel hollered: “Hey! Best commissioner ever!”
Delany nodded to acknowledge the man known to Buckeyes fans as “Tennessee Jeff” Hamms. But he did not break stride.
“People have yelled good things and bad things,” Delany told the Tribune, chuckling. “It depends oftentimes whether you win or lose. I appreciate fans, but I don’t think commissioners are per se supposed to be popular.”
During his 30 years at the helm of the Big Ten — which officially ends Jan. 1 — Delany’s approval rating has ranged from roughly 0 to 100, depending on the timing and source of opinion.
Big Ten presidents and chancellors worship him for the wads of cash that flow to their campuses each year, allowing them to construct jaw-dropping facilities and offer top dollar to coaches.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany laughs during an interview in his office a Big Ten headquarters Friday in Rosemont. Delany, 71, is stepping down Jan. 1 after 30 years at the helm. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Some Midwestern fans cursed him for rotating the Big Ten basketball tournament to Washington and New York.
Parents of Big Ten soccer and volleyball players should love him whenever they get to watch their kids appear on BTN telecasts.
Hordes of college football fans resented his loyalty to the Rose Bowl over his willingness to greenlight a college football playoff.
Most Penn State and Nebraska fans appreciate him for their inclusion in the conference.
SEC fans howled when he took a shot at the league’s academic standards for football players.
Maryland and Rutgers officials should bow down for the financial lifeline provided.
Social media mocked him when the Big Ten split into “Legends” and “Leaders.”
Ohio State and Michigan football fans must love having Maryland and Rutgers in the conference as the traditional powers deliver whuppings and raid those home bases for talent.
We haven’t even gotten to some of Delany’s other signature moves, such as pioneering instant replay and bowl tie-ins, helping to create the Big Ten-ACC Challenge and the Gavitt Tipoff Games, pushing and sometimes relenting on Friday night football games, adding Johns Hopkins for men’s lacrosse and Notre Dame for men’s hockey.
“No risk, no reward, no guts, no glory,” Delany said during the opening stretch of an 80-minute interview at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont.
Here are 10 takeaways from the interview:
1. Jim Delany, 71, is ready to bounce.
Asked if he felt melancholy as he walked off the field in Indianapolis, Delany replied: “Not at all. Some people go 20 or 25 years. I’ve had the chance to go 30 and could have gotten longer. I told our presidents in ’13: I’ll go to ’15. In ’15 I said I’ll go ’18. At ’18 I’ll go to ’20.
“I just had a sense that this was a good time. I can’t tell you why that’s the case. I don’t want there to be confusion between Jim Delany, the commissioner, and the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten is the Big Ten. It predated me by 90 years and it will postdate me by 100 years.
“I've had a chance to be impactful. I love working with the people I've worked with. Once I decided, the next decision was whether I’d try to influence the search process. I was adamant about that. Nobody influenced the search process when I was hired and I shouldn't try to influence it.”
2. He feels bullish about his successor.
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, left, chats with incoming Commissioner Kevin Warren, right, at the conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
The Big Ten’s transition to Kevin Warren began Sept. 16, and the former Minnesota Vikings executive already has developed a fantastic reputation in the building — friendly, inclusive and quick to pick up lunch tabs.
Although his first day marked a momentous occasion in college sports given that he’s the first African-American commissioner of a Power Five conference, Big Ten officials strangely have kept him out of public view.
Warren has made no public comments or appearances since his introductory news conference in June. Conference officials have taken it to such extremes that last week after I asked for permission to say hello and shake his hand, the request was denied.
Warren has been meeting with key figures that orbit the Big Ten — TV partners, bowl officials, commissioners from other conferences. He is getting to know presidents and chancellors.
“He is ready,” Delany said.
The simplest way to describe his task?
“Our job as a commissioner is to identify problems and potential solutions and then to rally support for those solutions,” Delany said. “If there's no support for those solutions, we don't do it.”
3. His tenure was marked by bold moves.
“If you don’t venture out,” Delany said, “you never gain anything. I don’t want to go back and read all the articles about (criticism for) the Big Ten Network or instant replay or expansion. You have to do what you think is right. And if you make mistakes, you course correct or you double down.”
Take expansion. The Big Ten added Nebraska in 2011 and achieved the right number of teams for a conference title game. But Delany wanted to go bigger.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, center, with Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne, left, and Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman, announces the university's application for membership at June 11, 2010 news conference in Lincoln, Neb. The Cornhuskers joined the conference the next year. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
“We had a tremendous competitive advantage for 50 or 75 years demographically, but when other conferences got larger, our advantage was mitigated,” he said. “If you look at simple demographics, through 2030-2040 (the Midwest is) growing at 1 to 1.5%. (Another conference) might be 3.5 to 4%. You can’t move this operation to Arizona. But you can move it to the East Coast because it’s contiguous, and you have major research institutions.”
OK, but haven’t the 2014 additions of Rutgers and Maryland been a flop? The two were dismal this fall, combining to go 1-17 in Big Ten play (someone had to win their matchup) and were outscored 731-195. And with rampant cord cutting among millennials, isn’t the quality of content more important than market size?
Delany wouldn’t budge, saying: “My view is that it’s absolutely the right decision and absolutely the right place for us to be. I expect that Maryland will continue to be competitive in a lot of sports. Rutgers’ hiring of Schiano is a bold stroke.
“I don’t think people should evaluate this in the short term. But in a 25-year or 50-year period, I think they’re going to be very competitive. They are added value. And if the Big Ten had stayed at 10 and not taken on any of the risk associated with expansion, we probably would be tied for the fourth-largest conference.
“Rutgers is a fabulous institution, as is Maryland. And the corridor they occupy with Penn State might be the most important in the Western world — great students, political institutions, financial institutions. So we’re not only recruiting students to play basketball but students overall.”
4. He wishes to return to the Big Apple.
The New Jersey native who played for North Carolina’s Dean Smith reveres Madison Square Garden. He spearheaded the decision to move the 2018 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament there even though teams had to play a condensed schedule with the Big East having dibs on the second weekend in March.
“It was debated and decided,” Delany said. “I thought it was the right thing to do because it was part of something much larger, our Eastern initiative. I mean, (Johns) Hopkins doesn't (join) by happenstance. We couldn't get to New York except a week earlier. We have an office there.
“While it was painful to jam so many games into such a short period of time, the tournament itself was successful. We sold out a variety of sessions. The players and coaches loved it. It’s a piece of history for the Big Ten. And even though Madison Square Garden has extended (the Big East Tournament) through 2026, our next extension should leave that possibility open (for a return).”
5. He expresses few regrets.
I asked the golf nut to name something for which he would take a mulligan. Delany paused 12 seconds before answering that in his first year, he didn’t collaborate properly with university athletic directors and faculty members regarding Penn State’s integration: “That hurt me in my ability to build trust.”
Hmmm … he wouldn’t take back the “open letter” he wrote in 2017 after Florida spanked Ohio State in the BCS title game, the one in which he wrote: “I love speed and the SEC has great speed, especially on the defensive line, but there are appropriate balances when mixing academics and athletics. … I wish we had six teams among the top-10 recruiting classes every year, but winning our way requires some discipline and restraint."
Delany got filleted for it.
“Yeah, this is one of the things I’ve learned,” he said. “Anybody with access to a microphone who says things that are negative, it tends not to work out in the long run. I do feel good that we’ve had 30 selection processes in the NCAA Tournament. And I think if you check the record, you wouldn’t find anything negative (I’ve commented) about that.”
6. He wants to remind America of the Big Ten’s academic prowess.
We walked to a wall at Big Ten headquarters that displays the conference’s Nobel laureates. Saul Bellow, for example, has graduate degrees from Northwestern and Wisconsin.
“There’s probably not another conference in the country that can produce 25-30% of this,” Delany said.
So the SEC doesn’t have this many?
Delany didn’t respond audibly.
“You can’t quote silence, can you?” he asked.
7. The quote that defines his tenure is: ‘Consider them rolled.’
Delany met with ESPN executives in 2004 with the intention of extending the Big Ten’s media-rights agreement. But when vice president Mark Shapiro lowballed him, Delany threatened to create his own network.
Shapiro: “If you don’t take our offer, you are rolling the dice.”
Delany: “Consider them rolled.”
Turns out the conference had been studying the formation of a network since the late ‘90s, but the dot-com bubble put that on hold.
“ESPN’s position was: You’ve got these five (major) conferences and they all make about the same (revenues). I didn’t think that was true,” Delany said. “But you can’t just think it’s not true. You have to act like it’s not true. And then you may be right or you may be wrong.
“I gave the full opportunity for our presidents and ADs to say: Just negotiate it out and do the best you can. But for me the offer was not acceptable and (the threat to create BTN) was not a head fake.
“Then you have to execute. It was very difficult (sparring with Comcast). But everybody stayed the course. Nobody turned their back on the idea. And they all benefited from it.”
Thanks in part to the network, Big Ten revenue surged to a record $759 million in 2018, $99 million more than the SEC.
8. He is big on protocol.
When thirtysomethings Pat Fitzgerald and Bret Bielema entered the conference as head coaches in 2006, Delany told them to look around the room at future Hall of Famers Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr.
“Give me a sense,” Delany asked them, “of how many times you think they've called me on any matter.”
Maybe 10, they responded.
“No,” Delany replied. “Try zero. We have a supervisor (of officials). I might talk to an athletic director. There is a chain of command.”
As Delany stood by a wall of classic Sports Illustrated covers, he reflected on Indiana’s Bob Knight, saying he “played his own music, his own tunes.”
Jim Delany stands in front of a wall of Sports Illustrated covers featuring Big Ten teams at conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Knight opposed the creation of the Big Ten Tournament, believing there should be one conference champion determined by a full slate of games.
Delany officially won that battle in 1998.
Knight and Ohio State’s Jim O’Brien protested the creation of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, with Knight claiming his future schedules were set: “I am adamantly opposed to having to call someone and say, ‘We’re not going to play.’ Then they have to go and find another game.”
Delany’s compromise: With nine ACC teams and — at the time — 11 in the Big Ten, Ohio State and Indiana sat out the challenge.
Asked to reflect on Knight, Delany said: “I’d say from 1975 to 1990, he was the (game’s) best coach. He won three national championships and I think changed how basketball is played in the Big Ten, from very fast- paced to more disciplined. Never broke the rules. Good on compliance. The students graduated. As a coach he was rough and tough.”
9. He is open to both playoff and conference expansion.
Will it ever make sense for the Big Ten to expand beyond 14 schools?
“That’s hard to say,” Delany replied. “The tectonic plates underlying expansion have cooled off considerably. But there are also some very definitive and big things likely to occur in the next decade — from media agreements to congressional activity. Institutions may have to make choices about how they align and do things. I couldn’t speculate on it, but it wouldn’t shock me. I’m not saying there’s an absolute size that makes sense. But even at 14, it’s hard to keep round-robin competition.”
What is the best number for the College Football Playoff? After the Big Ten failed to get its champion in the playoff in 2018 for the third straight season, Delany declared an openness to discuss new structures.
Last week Delany put it like this: “I don’t mind being left out (in a four-team playoff), but I do think that the compromise we fought for has not been well-administered.
“The eye test was never mentioned in the instructions for the selection of the team. The résumé was mentioned over and over and the strength of schedule over and over and the conference championships over and over and common opponents over and over. But the eye test was never mentioned.”
Delany said if a structural change is made before the 12-year agreement ends in 2026, it would be very complicated because of TV and bowl contracts. Plus he pointed to a “games issue” and “date issue.”
Are 16 games too many for non-salaried players? Is it wrong to play quarterfinal games around finals or extend the season past mid-January?
“It would be a compromise with various points of view,” he said. “But I won't be engaged in that compromise.”
This much is clear: Big Ten officials were steamed a year ago when the College Football Playoff committee ranked Georgia fifth and Ohio State sixth. The Buckeyes won their conference title game; the Bulldogs lost theirs.
10. He has more mountains to climb.
Delany has hiked Machu Picchu and scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. An Everest base-camp jaunt (approx. 17,000 feet) is the next goal.
“It’s a great way to test yourself, to see another culture,” he said. “It’s fun to travel. And it gives you an objective, puts you on a three- to four-month period of training.”
Delany will be moving to Nashville, Tenn., and plans to lecture at universities.
He’s a scrappy golfer who thrives under pressure, especially when he’s getting shots because of his high handicap.
“A lot of people call me ‘5-for-4’ because, at best, it’s usually a net birdie,” he joked. “You can take away the winning, just don’t take away the competition.”
Not if he was on fire.
Loved the Appian Way reference.
From Wiki:
The Appian Way is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars.
https://www.collegian.psu.edu/football/article_8dcd6f6c-75d2-58d3-86c3-c59b5f759c9d.html
http://www.statecollege.com/news/co...-11-million-for-bowl-shares-in-14-15,1460802/
Nothing less than Robbery and Corruption.
The fact that PSU "leadership" was a willing accomplice does not change that one iota.
http://www.statecollege.com/news/co...-11-million-for-bowl-shares-in-14-15,1460802/
Nothing less than Robbery and Corruption.
The fact that PSU "leadership" was a willing accomplice does not change that one iota.
Apparently most Penn State fans didn’t go to the Big Ten Championship game when we beat Wisconsin. It was just a bunch of Boo-ligans wearing Blue and White.
"Asshole”[/QUOTE]To save you the click:
Jim Delany’s run as Big Ten commissioner ends Jan. 1. And when it comes to his 30-year tenure, he has few regrets — not even adding Rutgers and Maryland.
By TEDDY GREENSTEIN | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | DEC 17, 2019
Jim Delany
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany smiles at the conference's headquarters in Rosemont on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
As Jim Delany exited the Lucas Oil Stadium field with wife Kitty after the Dec. 7 Big Ten championship game, a fan decked in Ohio State gear near the tunnel hollered: “Hey! Best commissioner ever!”
Delany nodded to acknowledge the man known to Buckeyes fans as “Tennessee Jeff” Hamms. But he did not break stride.
“People have yelled good things and bad things,” Delany told the Tribune, chuckling. “It depends oftentimes whether you win or lose. I appreciate fans, but I don’t think commissioners are per se supposed to be popular.”
During his 30 years at the helm of the Big Ten — which officially ends Jan. 1 — Delany’s approval rating has ranged from roughly 0 to 100, depending on the timing and source of opinion.
Big Ten presidents and chancellors worship him for the wads of cash that flow to their campuses each year, allowing them to construct jaw-dropping facilities and offer top dollar to coaches.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany laughs during an interview in his office a Big Ten headquarters Friday in Rosemont. Delany, 71, is stepping down Jan. 1 after 30 years at the helm. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Some Midwestern fans cursed him for rotating the Big Ten basketball tournament to Washington and New York.
Parents of Big Ten soccer and volleyball players should love him whenever they get to watch their kids appear on BTN telecasts.
Hordes of college football fans resented his loyalty to the Rose Bowl over his willingness to greenlight a college football playoff.
Most Penn State and Nebraska fans appreciate him for their inclusion in the conference.(BULLSHIT)
SEC fans howled when he took a shot at the league’s academic standards for football players.
Maryland and Rutgers officials should bow down for the financial lifeline provided.
Social media mocked him when the Big Ten split into “Legends” and “Leaders.”
Ohio State and Michigan football fans must love having Maryland and Rutgers in the conference as the traditional powers deliver whuppings and raid those home bases for talent.
We haven’t even gotten to some of Delany’s other signature moves, such as pioneering instant replay and bowl tie-ins, helping to create the Big Ten-ACC Challenge and the Gavitt Tipoff Games, pushing and sometimes relenting on Friday night football games, adding Johns Hopkins for men’s lacrosse and Notre Dame for men’s hockey.
“No risk, no reward, no guts, no glory,” Delany said during the opening stretch of an 80-minute interview at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont.
Here are 10 takeaways from the interview:
1. Jim Delany, 71, is ready to bounce.
Asked if he felt melancholy as he walked off the field in Indianapolis, Delany replied: “Not at all. Some people go 20 or 25 years. I’ve had the chance to go 30 and could have gotten longer. I told our presidents in ’13: I’ll go to ’15. In ’15 I said I’ll go ’18. At ’18 I’ll go to ’20.
“I just had a sense that this was a good time. I can’t tell you why that’s the case. I don’t want there to be confusion between Jim Delany, the commissioner, and the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten is the Big Ten. It predated me by 90 years and it will postdate me by 100 years.
“I've had a chance to be impactful. I love working with the people I've worked with. Once I decided, the next decision was whether I’d try to influence the search process. I was adamant about that. Nobody influenced the search process when I was hired and I shouldn't try to influence it.”
2. He feels bullish about his successor.
Outgoing Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, left, chats with incoming Commissioner Kevin Warren, right, at the conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
The Big Ten’s transition to Kevin Warren began Sept. 16, and the former Minnesota Vikings executive already has developed a fantastic reputation in the building — friendly, inclusive and quick to pick up lunch tabs.
Although his first day marked a momentous occasion in college sports given that he’s the first African-American commissioner of a Power Five conference, Big Ten officials strangely have kept him out of public view.
Warren has made no public comments or appearances since his introductory news conference in June. Conference officials have taken it to such extremes that last week after I asked for permission to say hello and shake his hand, the request was denied.
Warren has been meeting with key figures that orbit the Big Ten — TV partners, bowl officials, commissioners from other conferences. He is getting to know presidents and chancellors.
“He is ready,” Delany said.
The simplest way to describe his task?
“Our job as a commissioner is to identify problems and potential solutions and then to rally support for those solutions,” Delany said. “If there's no support for those solutions, we don't do it.”
3. His tenure was marked by bold moves.
“If you don’t venture out,” Delany said, “you never gain anything. I don’t want to go back and read all the articles about (criticism for) the Big Ten Network or instant replay or expansion. You have to do what you think is right. And if you make mistakes, you course correct or you double down.”
Take expansion. The Big Ten added Nebraska in 2011 and achieved the right number of teams for a conference title game. But Delany wanted to go bigger.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, center, with Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne, left, and Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman, announces the university's application for membership at June 11, 2010 news conference in Lincoln, Neb. The Cornhuskers joined the conference the next year. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
“We had a tremendous competitive advantage for 50 or 75 years demographically, but when other conferences got larger, our advantage was mitigated,” he said. “If you look at simple demographics, through 2030-2040 (the Midwest is) growing at 1 to 1.5%. (Another conference) might be 3.5 to 4%. You can’t move this operation to Arizona. But you can move it to the East Coast because it’s contiguous, and you have major research institutions.”
OK, but haven’t the 2014 additions of Rutgers and Maryland been a flop? The two were dismal this fall, combining to go 1-17 in Big Ten play (someone had to win their matchup) and were outscored 731-195. And with rampant cord cutting among millennials, isn’t the quality of content more important than market size?
Delany wouldn’t budge, saying: “My view is that it’s absolutely the right decision and absolutely the right place for us to be. I expect that Maryland will continue to be competitive in a lot of sports. Rutgers’ hiring of Schiano is a bold stroke.
“I don’t think people should evaluate this in the short term. But in a 25-year or 50-year period, I think they’re going to be very competitive. They are added value. And if the Big Ten had stayed at 10 and not taken on any of the risk associated with expansion, we probably would be tied for the fourth-largest conference.
“Rutgers is a fabulous institution, as is Maryland. And the corridor they occupy with Penn State might be the most important in the Western world — great students, political institutions, financial institutions. So we’re not only recruiting students to play basketball but students overall.”
4. He wishes to return to the Big Apple.
The New Jersey native who played for North Carolina’s Dean Smith reveres Madison Square Garden. He spearheaded the decision to move the 2018 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament there even though teams had to play a condensed schedule with the Big East having dibs on the second weekend in March.
“It was debated and decided,” Delany said. “I thought it was the right thing to do because it was part of something much larger, our Eastern initiative. I mean, (Johns) Hopkins doesn't (join) by happenstance. We couldn't get to New York except a week earlier. We have an office there.
“While it was painful to jam so many games into such a short period of time, the tournament itself was successful. We sold out a variety of sessions. The players and coaches loved it. It’s a piece of history for the Big Ten. And even though Madison Square Garden has extended (the Big East Tournament) through 2026, our next extension should leave that possibility open (for a return).”
5. He expresses few regrets.
I asked the golf nut to name something for which he would take a mulligan. Delany paused 12 seconds before answering that in his first year, he didn’t collaborate properly with university athletic directors and faculty members regarding Penn State’s integration: “That hurt me in my ability to build trust.”
Hmmm … he wouldn’t take back the “open letter” he wrote in 2017 after Florida spanked Ohio State in the BCS title game, the one in which he wrote: “I love speed and the SEC has great speed, especially on the defensive line, but there are appropriate balances when mixing academics and athletics. … I wish we had six teams among the top-10 recruiting classes every year, but winning our way requires some discipline and restraint."
Delany got filleted for it.
“Yeah, this is one of the things I’ve learned,” he said. “Anybody with access to a microphone who says things that are negative, it tends not to work out in the long run. I do feel good that we’ve had 30 selection processes in the NCAA Tournament. And I think if you check the record, you wouldn’t find anything negative (I’ve commented) about that.”
6. He wants to remind America of the Big Ten’s academic prowess.
We walked to a wall at Big Ten headquarters that displays the conference’s Nobel laureates. Saul Bellow, for example, has graduate degrees from Northwestern and Wisconsin.
“There’s probably not another conference in the country that can produce 25-30% of this,” Delany said.
So the SEC doesn’t have this many?
Delany didn’t respond audibly.
“You can’t quote silence, can you?” he asked.
7. The quote that defines his tenure is: ‘Consider them rolled.’
Delany met with ESPN executives in 2004 with the intention of extending the Big Ten’s media-rights agreement. But when vice president Mark Shapiro lowballed him, Delany threatened to create his own network.
Shapiro: “If you don’t take our offer, you are rolling the dice.”
Delany: “Consider them rolled.”
Turns out the conference had been studying the formation of a network since the late ‘90s, but the dot-com bubble put that on hold.
“ESPN’s position was: You’ve got these five (major) conferences and they all make about the same (revenues). I didn’t think that was true,” Delany said. “But you can’t just think it’s not true. You have to act like it’s not true. And then you may be right or you may be wrong.
“I gave the full opportunity for our presidents and ADs to say: Just negotiate it out and do the best you can. But for me the offer was not acceptable and (the threat to create BTN) was not a head fake.
“Then you have to execute. It was very difficult (sparring with Comcast). But everybody stayed the course. Nobody turned their back on the idea. And they all benefited from it.”
Thanks in part to the network, Big Ten revenue surged to a record $759 million in 2018, $99 million more than the SEC.
8. He is big on protocol.
When thirtysomethings Pat Fitzgerald and Bret Bielema (Really) entered the conference as head coaches in 2006, Delany told them to look around the room at future Hall of Famers Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr.
“Give me a sense,” Delany asked them, “of how many times you think they've called me on any matter.”
Maybe 10, they responded.
“No,” Delany replied. “Try zero. We have a supervisor (of officials). I might talk to an athletic director. There is a chain of command.”
As Delany stood by a wall of classic Sports Illustrated covers, he reflected on Indiana’s Bob Knight, saying he “played his own music, his own tunes.”
Jim Delany stands in front of a wall of Sports Illustrated covers featuring Big Ten teams at conference headquarters Friday in Rosemont. (Kamil Krzaczynski/For the Chicago Tribune)
Knight opposed the creation of the Big Ten Tournament, believing there should be one conference champion determined by a full slate of games.
Delany officially won that battle in 1998.
Knight and Ohio State’s Jim O’Brien protested the creation of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, with Knight claiming his future schedules were set: “I am adamantly opposed to having to call someone and say, ‘We’re not going to play.’ Then they have to go and find another game.”
Delany’s compromise: With nine ACC teams and — at the time — 11 in the Big Ten, Ohio State and Indiana sat out the challenge.
Asked to reflect on Knight, Delany said: “I’d say from 1975 to 1990, he was the (game’s) best coach. He won three national championships and I think changed how basketball is played in the Big Ten, from very fast- paced to more disciplined. Never broke the rules. Good on compliance. The students graduated. As a coach he was rough and tough.”
9. He is open to both playoff and conference expansion.
Will it ever make sense for the Big Ten to expand beyond 14 schools?
“That’s hard to say,” Delany replied. “The tectonic plates underlying expansion have cooled off considerably. But there are also some very definitive and big things likely to occur in the next decade — from media agreements to congressional activity. Institutions may have to make choices about how they align and do things. I couldn’t speculate on it, but it wouldn’t shock me. I’m not saying there’s an absolute size that makes sense. But even at 14, it’s hard to keep round-robin competition.”
What is the best number for the College Football Playoff? After the Big Ten failed to get its champion in the playoff in 2018 for the third straight season, Delany declared an openness to discuss new structures.
Last week Delany put it like this: “I don’t mind being left out (in a four-team playoff), but I do think that the compromise we fought for has not been well-administered.
“The eye test was never mentioned in the instructions for the selection of the team. The résumé was mentioned over and over and the strength of schedule over and over and the conference championships over and over and common opponents over and over. But the eye test was never mentioned.”
Delany said if a structural change is made before the 12-year agreement ends in 2026, it would be very complicated because of TV and bowl contracts. Plus he pointed to a “games issue” and “date issue.”
Are 16 games too many for non-salaried players? Is it wrong to play quarterfinal games around finals or extend the season past mid-January?
“It would be a compromise with various points of view,” he said. “But I won't be engaged in that compromise.”
This much is clear: Big Ten officials were steamed a year ago when the College Football Playoff committee ranked Georgia fifth and Ohio State sixth. The Buckeyes won their conference title game; the Bulldogs lost theirs.
10. He has more mountains to climb.
Delany has hiked Machu Picchu and scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. An Everest base-camp jaunt (approx. 17,000 feet) is the next goal.
“It’s a great way to test yourself, to see another culture,” he said. “It’s fun to travel. And it gives you an objective, puts you on a three- to four-month period of training.”
Delany will be moving to Nashville, Tenn., and plans to lecture at universities.
He’s a scrappy golfer who thrives under pressure, especially when he’s getting shots because of his high handicap.
“A lot of people call me ‘5-for-4’ because, at best, it’s usually a net birdie,” he joked. “You can take away the winning, just don’t take away the competition.”
Agreed. Would love to see him suffer thru watching PSU play for championships in every sport, to the point it drives him mad.
The important thing was that PSU suffered for this, not the asshole commissioner who has been playing us as rubes for 25 years.
He pissed Bo off. That was the bottom line.
He took 12 seconds to recall that he might regret the “warm welcome” we received.
I don’t wish ill-will on anyone...except that pr!ck and Emmert. Draw and quarter them and I’ll p!ss on their rancid remains
That crusty old loser laid the groundwork for alot of this. I had a client I really liked but he had a Bo bobble head. He was a good dude though.
bo was threatened by Joe, even though Joe put in a good word to help bo get the job at um.
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