Former Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren was not liked a whole lot by Big Ten member schools and administrators. It was a happy moment in a lot of Big Ten communities when Warren announced he was leaving to take an executive position with the NFL’s Chicago Bears. His move to bring USC and UCLA to the Big Ten did fatten the conference’s coffers, but it’s a move which was not unanimously supported within the conference and its established membership.
New Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti had the advantage of inheriting a situation (from Warren) in which his conference was poised to make a lot of money, but Petitti had a difficult job in that he had to tend to the messes and rough edges Warren left unresolved.
With Warren bailing on the Big Ten before the arrival of USC and UCLA, Petitti (albeit with a lot of help from established Big Ten administrators who were working before he arrived) oversaw the approval of the Big Ten’s new football scheduling format within the 16-team framework which will exist in 2024 with the Los Angeles schools in place.
As Rutgers Wire notes, Petitti made it clear the Big Ten will not consider moving from nine conference games to eight, even though the SEC chose to remain at eight league games for the 2024 season.
“The conference is playing nine games, there’s a commitment to continue to do that. Everything was studied,” Petitti said about the Big Ten’s plans.
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