Greg McElroy, Pete Thamel debate criticisms of former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren

Former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has a fascinating legacy in college football. During the COVID-era of college football, Warren was subject to a lot of criticism.

With the way he handled the cancellation and resumption of the season was not well received. But before he took a front office job with the Chicago Bears, Warren scored television deals with CBS and the Big Ten as he went out the door and added USC and UCLA to the conference.

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy brought up the criticisms and ESPN’s Pete Thamel debated where that left Warren in the eyes of college football fans.

“We’ve all kind of heard you know, the rumors of the ineptitude of Kevin Warren,” McElroy said on his show. “I mean, multiple people I’ve talked to in the industry have spoken to him being a fish out of water, a guy that doesn’t truly understand what he does. He’s a guy that really didn’t have eyes for the college game whatsoever.

“Until, you know, he was a leveraging play to potentially climb on the NFL ladder, so to speak, which by the way, none of us are mad at him for it. He did a pretty good job ushering in a kind of an interesting era, with the exception of his handling of COVID.”

That’s where Thamel opened up about the complexities of Warren’s tenure.

“I don’t think you can just put this as a linear issue for Kevin Warren because (it’s) complicated and there’s a lot of layers,” Thamel said on McElroy and Cubelic. “The details of these deals, which are complex and have a lot of different moving parts and layers have emerged. Kevin Warren was in a short period of time, changed college sports in a pretty significant way. And I don’t think you can argue that. Obviously, the USC and UCLA move is going to be looked at as a pivot point for the collegiate sports industry for years to come. And, you know, this TV deal is insignificant. It raises the bar even with its issues. 

“I agree with the phrase you use Greg there that Kevin was a fish out of water. College sports are mind numbingly complicated and you have very little unilateral power … You essentially report to a bunch of presidents, who effectively obsessively control a multibillion dollar business that they’re not experts in. And this has been sort of the circle of college sports, the industry has been spinning its wheels in a lot of ways. Because there are very few people in charge and because it’s such a qualifier, and if you’re a commissioner … There’s a statistic where something like 12 of the 14 (presidents) changed from the time Warren was hired until the time he left.”

It’s no secret Warren was the commissioner during an unprecedented time in college sports. It also didn’t help that the Big Ten had a lot of turnover.

“So you just got a bunch of other presidents who are sociologists and CEOs and doctors, you know, all intellectual, competent people who are much brighter than the three of us that are experts in college sports,” Thamel said. “And so that’s just kind of the dynamic and Kevin Warren found out that this isn’t the NFL, this isn’t just a cold blooded business.

“This isn’t 32 teams trying to move in the same direction to make billions. It is a complex world filled with a ton of different layers. And you know, Kevin Warren had communication issues during COVID. Those were well known, his own athletic directors were very critical of how he handled that.”

Essentially, it’s a complex world to navigate and Warren did what he could. How fans perceive his time as commissioner is subjective, particularly with the negatives (COVID season) and the positives (expansion and TV deals).