Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti Talks Oregon, Expansion at Media Day
On Tuesday the Big Ten media days opened with commissioner Tony Petitti, Ryan Day and others to start the three-day event.
There’s a ton of excitement and eyeballs on the revised Big Ten with the new member schools, Oregon, Washington USC and UCLA.
Commissioner Petitti opened up the event with some remarks.
Opening Remarks:
“On Aug 2 we officially welcomed the university of Oregon, UCLA, USC and the university of Washington into the Big Ten conference. These AAU member institutions are leaders in scholarship, innovation and scientific advancements. Together they have won 302 team championships and will have 49 Olympians in Paris. On the football field they’ve combined for 10 Heisman trophies, 73 hall of famers, 41 Rose bowl championships and 153 first round NFL draft picks, including 6 just this year. Our staff is intent on working with all four institutions to ensure they hit the ground running this Summer. They joined us during the most transformative period in college sports.”
“College football has never been stronger. No sport is better at bringing people together than college football. This season will be the first season with a full slate of games on three broadcast networks along with cable and direct to consumer options. Providing fans with the ability to watch Big Ten games in multiple ways. Our new lineup has more premier matchups week to week than ever before.”
“Next month we look forward to unveiling the Big Ten’s new state-of-the-art centralized replay center. It is the most comprehensive of its kind with 18 dedicated replay bays and 6 medical observation stations that will allow our staff to review plays while at the same time monitoring the safety and health of our players.”
On Long Distance Travel:
“So first I think it’s really important to understand that every sport is different. Every sports got its own regular season format, it’s own post-season format. So we start from that place. The process of building schedules is collaborative. We’ve taken a lot of care to try and minimize travel where we can. I will tell you we feel really good about where we ended up with most of our sports. I really believe scheduling is something that has to constantly be managed. I anticipate we’ll get a lot more right in the coming years. But it’s our responsibility and our job to listen to our players and coaches to make sure we’re adjusting and making the changes we need to.”
On Friday Night Games:
“You look at our footprint on Saturday having three broadcast partners supported by the cable presence of the Big Ten network. Friday is a chance for national exposure. You’re going to see some programs there really embrace the chance to play on Friday. Of course we don’t want to burden any one institution. We care about what happens at the stadium as well, in the classroom. But it’s an opportunity to give some programs a showcase to build.”
