Kevin Warren named commissioner of the Big Ten Conference

#1      

Dan

Admin
The Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) announced today that Kevin Warren has been named the sixth commissioner of the Big Ten Conference. He will start on September 16, 2019, to take full advantage of an opportunity to transition alongside Commissioner Jim Delany, who will officially step down on January 1, 2020 following a 30-year career with the conference.

Warren is the Chief Operating Officer for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League where he has worked since 2005. He is the highest-ranking African-American executive working on the business side for a team in the NFL and is the first African-American COO in NFL history.
https://bigten.org/news/2019/6/4/general-warren-named-sixth-commissioner-of-big-ten-conference.aspx


Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany to retire in 2020
https://bigten.org/news/2019/3/4/ge...nclude-term-as-commissioner-in-june-2020.aspx
 
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#5      

Dren1

Glenview, IL
Who will be the new man
Maybe Jim Phillips, the AD at Northwestern? I believe he has a 10-year contract that will keep him at NW until 2020, so the timing would be right. As much as I hate to admit it, he has done a great job there with most of the teams and facilities.
 
#6      

illini80

Forgottonia
There are some things not to like about his tenure, but no one can say the man did not know how to make money. Overall, he probably did a great job, but it seemed to me that a few big brand teams always seemed to come out a little better than the rest of us.
 
#7      

Deleted member 649710

D
Guest
I don't see Rutgers ever becoming a value add to the brand.
 
#8      

Deleted member 16340

D
Guest
That Bob Hammel really puts into perspective, the awesomeness of the Big Ten Conference.
 
#10      

redwingillini11

North Aurora
Jim Phillips wouldn't bother me as much as an osu or Wisconsin guy. As was said above, he's done a great job up there. Could even help us to get him to move from Evanston to Rosemont (y)
 
#11      
Who will be the new man

If they want to think outside the B1G they might take a look at Craig Thompson, Mountain West Conference. He's done a pretty decent job without the same assets as the Power Conferences. He's been there 20 years. Maybe he will think he's done all he can do and that it's time to move on. Not sure how old he is. Maybe B1G is going to look for someone who would be available to be here for 10-15 years if he/she does a good job.
 
#12      
There are some things not to like about his tenure, but no one can say the man did not know how to make money. Overall, he probably did a great job, but it seemed to me that a few big brand teams always seemed to come out a little better than the rest of us.
The other side of the coin is the big brand teams should be coming out better...the BTN was brilliant, and to your point he specifically made Illinois a lot of money. For as bad as we have been in revenue sports the last decade or so & Delaney to be sending us a check for over 50 million/yr we should be very happy.
 
#15      
fyi...since we are talking about Delaney & new commish, I went to see if any update was out for next year's Big payout, didn't find it, but did see where they reported income up 48% from last year. According to the article works out to about 54 million/team for the long term members (think last year the projected number was 51 million from a Michigan report)

2018 Report
 
#17      
I don't see Rutgers ever becoming a value add to the brand.
It's not about the program, it's about their market and that $$$.
I think there are 2 sides to this coin, some speculation that the market has less value as cords get cut, while at the same time there is one more mouth to feed with all the conference money taken in, so far it is working, but I'm just barely smart enough to know I'm not smart enough to know where it goes with the next conference TV deal...the other side is that at some point we need someone we can beat in the conference, so maybe we should thank the Lord every night for Rutgers.
 
#18      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I think there are 2 sides to this coin, some speculation that the market has less value as cords get cut

It's not speculation, it's a fact.

Delany got BTN on basic cable in NY and DC. I didn't think that was possible, I was wrong on that, and it's been a big financial windfall for the conference.

But as cable subscriptions inexorably decline, the money incoming from the BTN is going to go into reverse, and adding Rutgers and Maryland with their irrelevant football programs diluting the attractiveness of conference matchups has made the first tier rights that get sold to outside parties less attractive as well.

The conference's cheerleaders treated the short term of the most recent TV deal as a coup, allowing the conference to dip back into the marketplace before their competitors. They're wrong. The conference settled for a short term in order to keep the per-year-per-school amount high. Winter is coming when the negotiations open again.
 
#19      

Deleted member 649710

D
Guest
Over time does the participation of Rutgers and Maryland in the conference boost the revenue to University of Illinois by a sufficient amount to offset the added costs of our teams traveling there and the reduced percentage that U of I gets from total conference revenues? I have my doubts.
 
#20      

DrewD007

Woodridge, IL
Over time does the participation of Rutgers and Maryland in the conference boost the revenue to University of Illinois by a sufficient amount to offset the added costs of our teams traveling there and the reduced percentage that U of I gets from total conference revenues? I have my doubts.

I guess we'll see in the long run, but in 2013 (before Maryland and Rutgers were added) the B1G brought in $318.4 million. 2018? Nearly $759 million. So I think it's safe to say their addition has covered the costs of travel and the smaller piece of pie.
 
#21      
It's not speculation, it's a fact.

Delany got BTN on basic cable in NY and DC. I didn't think that was possible, I was wrong on that, and it's been a big financial windfall for the conference.

But as cable subscriptions inexorably decline, the money incoming from the BTN is going to go into reverse, and adding Rutgers and Maryland with their irrelevant football programs diluting the attractiveness of conference matchups has made the first tier rights that get sold to outside parties less attractive as well.

The conference's cheerleaders treated the short term of the most recent TV deal as a coup, allowing the conference to dip back into the marketplace before their competitors. They're wrong. The conference settled for a short term in order to keep the per-year-per-school amount high. Winter is coming when the negotiations open again.
Gritty, you crack me up. To support your first sentence/paragraph, you admit in the second paragraph to having been wrong with a previous speculation on the subject, followed up with your only fact in the third paragraph being wrong (first tier rights have increased in attractiveness as evidenced by the increased payouts) and finished with pure speculation in the fourth paragraph.

One would think BTN revenue should go down from cable and up from streaming services, but the numbers are pure speculation at this point. Either way, first tier rights bring in a lot more than the BTN, and pretty much everyone had speculated ESPN/ABC would come in much lower than they did in the last round of negotiations. While I don't believe the rights will keep increasing at the current pace, and wouldn't be surprised if they drop, I don't think any drop will be caused by "less attractive" match-ups with Maryland and Rutgers.
 
#22      

Shane Walsh

aka "Captain Oblivious"
Cynthiana, Kentucky
#23      
Back to Warren. Does he have any connection to the B10 or, for that matter, college athletics?
 
#24      
Back to Warren. Does he have any connection to the B10 or, for that matter, college athletics?
Not really. He has experience with collegiate sports law, so maybe the Big Ten university presidents thought that was very beneficial for a commissioner going forward. I don't believe Jim Delany had any connection to the Big Ten prior to becoming commissioner, so that part would never have been a requirement.
 
#25      
It's not speculation, it's a fact. Yeah you are partly/mostly who I was talking about as you beat that drum of doom and gloom prior to the most recent contract (although with a different user name) , but No it isn't a fact, the fact is cords have been getting cut, yet the B1G still has significantly increased payouts despite that. I think it is clear and agree the money steam in the current model of package deals is decreasing and it is clear that ESPN is printing less money than they used to print. So although I expect some of what you are predicting will happen, there will be streaming opportunities, ala carte opportunities, and continued leveraging of FOX/ESPN/Bigten network that will/can work in our favor. Honestly, I don't think anyone saw the size of the last contract coming, yet it happened.

Delany got BTN on basic cable in NY and DC. I didn't think that was possible, I was wrong on that, and it's been a big financial windfall for the conference. Those markets surely help, but the real gem here seems to be the additional money in Tier 1 deals & that seems to be from the leverage Delaney used from the Big ten network & holding ESPN hostage by signing the first half of the package with Fox.

But as cable subscriptions inexorably decline, the money incoming from the BTN is going to go into reverse, and adding Rutgers and Maryland with their irrelevant football programs diluting the attractiveness of conference matchups has made the first tier rights that get sold to outside parties less attractive as well. There are no doubt challenges, but opening up NY & DC shouldn't be understated & currently this is still more about the Tier 1 rights than BTN money.

The conference's cheerleaders treated the short term of the most recent TV deal as a coup, allowing the conference to dip back into the marketplace before their competitors. They're wrong. The conference settled for a short term in order to keep the per-year-per-school amount high. Winter is coming when the negotiations open again. The money was clearly a coup, the short term nature is a risk, but could also turn out to be an opportunity to be first on the market for the next go around...again, even with the short term nature, I didn't see north of 50 million payouts coming, so I'm not smart enough to say this is a long term loss, there is value to money now even if winter comes in the event of less money in the next contract.