2022 Big Ten Media Days Live Updates: Top Takeaways From Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren addressed the media at the 2022 Big Ten Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Here are the most important things Warren said from the podium.
On Creating a Big Ten Parents Council & Student-Athlete Advisory and Advocacy Committee
"The Big Ten is born out of a desire for equity in sport. I'm excited that we have a meeting coming up with our Big Ten Parents Council, that we'll be able to talk with them about their ideas, listen to them to get insight and advice of what we can do to make this conference even stronger.
"We also have formed a Student-Athlete Advisory and Advocacy Committee to listen to our student-athletes even more, to understand what's important to them, what we as a conference can do better, how we can become stronger."
On Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Big Ten Conference
"On January 11th of 1895, seven college presidents came together at a hotel in downtown Chicago called the Palmer House and created a blueprint for college athletics. I can only imagine, and there are many days that I wake up and I think about, what would it have been like to be in that meeting with those seven college presidents when they formed the Big Ten Conference.
"I am sure those college presidents would have been proud that, when they saw the 100 individuals from the Big Ten Conference that we took to Selma, Alabama, two weeks ago to do the walk from Montgomery to Selma, to ask our student-athletes and ask ourselves what would we be willing to walk 54 miles for? What's important to us?
"We walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge -- black, white, male, female. We learned about Bloody Sunday. We visited museums. We heard a speech by Bryan Stevenson.
"It's part of the Big Life Series because in the Big Ten Conference there's so much you can learn, not only in the classroom, but in those experiences that you have in the world that we live in. This is something that we'll do every single day. This incredible time that we spent in Selma was healing, but I'm sure would have made the seven presidents proud.
"It also would have made them proud that in June we had 75 individuals at the Big Ten Conference office to come together for a women's summit in honor of the 50th anniversary of gender equality and Title IX.
"Next week we'll have the first ever Volleyball Media Days at the Big Ten Network in downtown Chicago to honor our incredible women volleyball players. Our Big Ten Conference is committed to diversity and inclusion, not only in our conference office, but at every level in our organizations, the number of black men who serve as chancellor and presidents, women, people of color, athletic directors, head football coaches throughout our organizations.
"We've made a lot of progress. We will continually do better, but diversity and inclusion is incredibly important to me personally and to the Big Ten Conference."
On UCLA & USC Joining the Big Ten
"We are blessed now, especially with the addition of the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, that we will have a footprint in the three major media markets from New York to Los Angeles to Chicago, which will allow us to be even bolder when it comes to corporate partnership and activation. So I'll look forward to building a very successful and robust business in that area.
"The Big Ten Conference was also born out of a desire to transform and be transformative. We are currently in a landscape in college athletics that is changing on a daily basis.
"I will make it very clear in everything we say today, we do today, we do tomorrow and in the future that the Big Ten Conference will not languish in bureaucracy. We will be innovative, we will be creative, we'll be bold, we'll be strong, we'll be powerful, and we'll be direct to make sure we can prioritize what's important to our student-athletes, what's important to our fans, what's important to our member institutions, what's important to our partners as we help shape and direct the future of college athletics.
"We were very pleased with our 14 existing Big Ten institutions, but we are incredibly excited to welcome two new members in 2024 to the Big Ten Conference: The University of California at Los Angeles, who's led by Chancellor Gene Block; and the University of Southern California, who's led by President Carol Folt.
"These are two academic and athletic institutions and a strong location in Los Angeles with great rich history and tradition, who are innovative, who are forward thinking, who are bold, who will make us even stronger as a conference. And I look forward to welcoming these two fine institutions into the Big Ten Conference, to working with them, to making our conference even stronger than it already is."
On Name, Image & Likeness
"Name, image and likeness is another area that we've been talking about this last, past year. I still strongly believe -- I'm a big proponent of name, image and likeness. I am so grateful that many of our student-athletes have been blessed with the ability to monetize their name, image and likeness.
"That said, I am disappointed that we still have to operate with these various patchwork of laws from a state-level standpoint. We need federal legislation to help put in some guardrails to make it even more cleaner, to make sure these name, image and likeness is not used as a recruiting inducement.
"So we have a lot of work to do even from a political standpoint."
On College Football Expansion
"I'm focused on being realistic about the state of college athletics, about accepting our responsibility to shape college athletics, lead college athletics, fortify college athletics, to be bold, to be strong, to be innovative.
"And regarding expansion, I get asked every single day what's next? It may include future expansion, but it will be done for the right reasons at the right time with our student-athletes, academic and athletic empowerment at the center of any and all decisions that we will make regarding any further expansions.
"We will not expand just to expand. It will be strategic, it will add additional value to our conference, and it will provide a platform to even have our student-athletes be put on a larger platform so they can build their careers but also that they have an opportunity to grow and learn from an education and from an athletic standpoint.
"We are in a perpetual state of evaluating what's next for college athletics, what's next for the Big Ten Conference, what's next for College Football Playoff, what's next for the NCAA, what's next for the Transformation Committee, and what's next for the future of how we operate in this environment called college athletics. Our bowls, our partnerships.
"I'm a big believer that the reason we are dealing with a lot of issues that we are dealing with today is because the business of college athletics has grown faster than the structure and the governance of college athletics. Media rights, we've been working on those. I'm incredibly pleased with where we are. We have great opportunities. We're finalizing our deals, and I look forward to standing before you to make an announcement sometime here, sooner than later.
"So while the dollars are important to our member institutions, but it's really about the platform to provide financial stability to our member institutions so we can provide excellent healthcare, mental health services, life skills programs, and even educational experiences to our student-athletes."
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