Kevin Warren Gives Update on "The Alliance" From Big Ten Media Day

The Big Ten commissioner spoke publicly for the first time since he was joined by Pac-12 and ACC commissioners in sharing their collective vision moving forward.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Oct 7, 2021 9:25 AM EDT

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren spoke for about 30 minutes at the beginning of Big Ten Basketball Media Day in Indianapolis, during which he answered a handful of questions after he shared some prepared remarks about the success of the league.

I had a chance to ask him specifically about the latest on "The Alliance", since this is the first time he's spoken publicly after the initial announcement of the shared vision between the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12. The last time he spoke about joining forces with Jim Phillips in the ACC and George Kliavkoff in the Pac-12, it was clear that the leagues wanted to keep the structure of what college athletics currently looks like.

While much of that is still to be figured out along the way as new opportunities arise, Warren said he's excited for great cooperation between the three leagues.

"I think the biggest thing is it was done and the rationale for it was to kind of steady and stabilize college athletics," Warren said. "I strongly believe since we announced it you've seen some stabilization from that. Although we will work together from a scheduling alliance with the Pac-12 and ACC, there's so many other things that you're going to start seeing us amplify, issues around social justice, around diversity, equity and inclusion, mental health and wellness, academic components.

"As we get deeper into the fall, you'll start seeing those. We want to make sure we stabilize college athletics, we work together. Yes, we build a scheduling alliance together, but we also bring to the forefront so many different things that our student-athletes are passionate about, that they want to talk about, that they deserve a platform to discuss.

"Now instead of us only doing it in the Big Ten Conference footprint, now we go from 14 schools to 41 schools. We go from Boston to Los Angeles to be able to talk about these issues.

"All you have to do, every single day there's something in the press about the mental health of our student-athletes. I think we'll be able to work together through this alliance and help our student-athletes to work together to address a lot of these issues.

"Thanks for raising that question. As we get deeper into the fall, you'll be able to see it."

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