Tony Petitti recalls what drew him to Big Ten commissioner job

Big Ten Conference commissioner Tony Petitti was sure some more impressive candidate would swoop in and be selected to lead the league after former commissioner Kevin Warren left for the Chicago Bears early in 2023. But, he dove head first into the search process, equally sure he would learn something from it.

Months later, and following his first football media days as the Big Ten commissioner, Petitti sat down with Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt to discuss his path to the league and more. As Petitti put it, he went “all-in” and ended up being the pick for the job.

“That’s why I sort of treated it like, ‘Let me just go all-in and see what happens and if I end up being the right person, that would be great. If not, it was worth all the preparation,'” Petitti said.

As he dug in on preparation and learning for his eventual new job, Petitti — who has been an executive at TV networks and in Major League Baseball — quickly found he loved the potential role and work that would entail.

And being commissioner of the Big Ten, in his eyes one of the more prestigious leagues in the country, certainly appealed.

“When I started doing the preparation I really, really loved it actually,” Petitti said. “I spent time talking to people that were in and and around college athletics, people that I trusted, that I was close to back in the day. And looking at the challenges and the opportunity and then just being associated with something as important as the Big Ten, it’s really hard not to give it my full effort.”

Petitti worked in college sports early on during his career, but had been away from the realm for some time, hence all the homework on the new role. In hindsight, he thinks he was approached because of his track record, but he might’ve been hired because of how he approached the role.

Even still, he wasn’t expecting to get considered in the first place.

“I was sort of surprised to get the call and at the same time really intrigued by it,” Petitti said. “And I felt like it was a long shot. You’re talking about a job as big as this one, with the type of people that would come forward to be interested. But I started doing the work — like really what would this job be? That’s what they asked me to do. I think they felt good about what my background was and the experiences I had, but I had been away from college sports for a little bit, even though I worked on it a lot in the beginning part of my career. So that was sort of the combination of all those things.”