How many penalty flags fly accurately in the Big Ten? USC, UCLA questions plentiful, and more Media Days takeaways

Indianapolis, Ind. — The first half of this year’s Big Ten Media Days are in the books at Lucas Oil Stadium.

It was a fairly quiet day inside the enormous home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts that is also the site of this conference’s annual football title game.

Coaches and players from Nebraska, Maryland, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan all spoke with reporters after Big Ten commissioner led off the day with a 45-minute news conference.

Here are our main takeaways from Tuesday as we await Penn State and the other Big Ten schools to sit behind a microphone on Wednesday.

USC, UCLA will be welcome in the Big Ten

It should come as no great surprise, but almost everyone who talked on day one was asked about USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten. And, in even less shocking news, coaches are intrigued by the fact that the two PAC-12 heavyweights will soon be competing in their conference.

“The first thing that came to my mind was L.A., are you kidding me? That’s perfect,” Minnesota coach PJ Fleck said. “The Big Ten now is represented from the West Coast to the East Coast. You look at the major media markets now. That’s incredibly positive.

“I think when you kind of look at does playing out there help recruiting? Yes and no. I think it’s very different than it used to be ten years ago, where kids can live stream games, watch any game they want, they have all the types of resources on their phones. But I do think it’s really positive for the conference and the league. We’re excited about it. It’s coast to coast.”

Added Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald:

“I’m excited to add USC and UCLA. The expansion of our footprint from the East Coast to the West, you’re going to wake up watching Big Ten football and go to bed watching Big Ten football. So that’s exciting for our players, exciting for our fans.”

One major component of expansion is the added travel both the newcomers and traditional Big Ten teams will soon face. No one here seemed worried about that, however. Indeed, it won’t impact charter-flying football teams nearly as much as other university sports. But that will all be figured out in due time. By and large, a welcome reception was expected, and that’s exactly what was on display.

The buzz factor is minimal

The SEC and Big Ten have separated themselves from their peers. But, the former still puts on a much more high-profile media days event. It’s spread over four days and attracts fans from almost every school. Here, aside from a few signs fixed high up on the Lucas Oil Stadium exterior facades, a random passerby would have virtually no way of knowing that Big Ten Media Days were going on. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But, it’s the only way someone who was there can describe the atmosphere,or frankly lack thereof, to someone who wasn’t.

Inside, the playing surface is spaciously set up with chairs and tables to work at in addition to the main podium and many smaller ones. Indiana attracted a decent media crowd, as did Michigan. But, most of the afternoon roundtable sessions featured more milling around than anything else. Even Northwestern tackle Peter Skoronski, who figures to be a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, often found his podium empty.

There will be a bigger buzz tomorrow with Penn State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin all in town. But, there wasn’t much of any on this morning and afternoon.

How many flags fly accurately in the Big Ten?

Big Ten head of officials Bill Carollo will take questions on any topic related to rules and officiating from all comers. He answers intelligently and in a way anyone can understand. And, he’s direct.

The conference has taken flak from this writer in the past for not revealing much of its grading and decision-making data publically. But, Carollo did discuss the percentage of flags that fly accurately on Tuesday.

“When we do throw the flags, we’re correct 96 percent of the time,” Carollo said. “So, usually when you see a flag and you’re booing, and don’t like the call, or want to see the replay on it, most of the time, a high percent, it’s right.”

He added that the aim is for 90 percent of the calls to be made and flagged correctly. Now, if you find yourself reading that and saying “why not 100 percent?!” our take is that we appreciate Carollo’s honesty. After all, that number is impossible even if it might be ideal.

“I look for an accuracy of 90%, and that includes ones that we call, as well as the ones we don’t call. So, we have 10 calls. I want nine out of 10. You can only get one wrong, and I can’t have any no calls. It has to balance out.”

Carollo also said that pass interference is an area the conference wants to improve in, as it was under that 90-percent threshold a year ago.

Finally, the biggest change of note from a rules perspective entering the season is that defensive holding is now an automatic first down.