Big Ten's Delany hints at retirement by end of new TV deal
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, perhaps the most powerful figure in college athletics, said Tuesday that he doesn't plan to be in his role when the league renegotiates its new television deal in six years.
Speaking in his annual state-of-the-conference address during the Big Ten's media days at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, Delany confirmed that the league's new television deal with ESPN and FOX - which is reportedly worth $2.64 billion - will last for six years. And while he didn't expand upon that or confirm contractual figures, he did offer a somewhat surprising revelation that his retirement could be coming soon. When a reporter asked Delany whether he would be around to negotiate another megadeal in 2022, the 68-year-old paused before responding, "No."
"I will be around for a bit. Whether I'm around here for another six years is probably a little bit beyond how I see it," said Delany, who has served as the Big Ten commissioner since 1989. "In terms of the six-year period, that's really where the market was for us ... It's really a balance between security and the dollars that can be generated in the short term. We've done 20-year deals, we've done 10-year deals, but in this case we thought six would provide us with some midterm security."
SportsBusiness Journal reported in June that ESPN had agreed to pay the Big Ten $190 million annually to take over the second part of the league's package deal over the next six years. Fox will reportedly control the other half of the package for another $240 million per year, while CBS will also fork over $10 million per year to retain its basketball-only rights. That three-pronged, $2.64 billion total nearly triples the league's previous annual media-rights package. While Delany declined to comment on the figures Tuesday, citing conference policy, he didn't dispute the numbers over the next six years.
Delany also touched on a number of other issues facing the league. Here are a few notes from his address, which lasted just more than 20 minutes.
The Rose Bowl is not moving from its traditional afternoon television slot on New Year's Day in order to accommodate potential changes to the College Football Playoff, which could move its semifinals from New Year's Eve after ratings plummeted last year. "I think there may be movement from other bowls, but I don't foresee changes in how the Rose Bowl is sequenced to the College Football Playoff," Delany said.
Delany said league officials have had discussions about adopting a similar policy to those of the Southeastern and Pacific-12 conferences in restricting incoming transfers who had "serious misconduct" issues at their previous institutions, but league officials are against adopting those rules at this time and instead will let schools govern themselves. "We have got a lot of confidence and commitment from our institutions, totally committed to reducing if not eliminating violence, sexual violence in every way," Delany said.
The Big Ten East division has had four teams ranked in the top five in league recruiting rankings over the past four years and has claimed three consecutive conference championships, which underscores just how lopsided the division alignment is at the moment. But Delany said there have been no talks to break up the East and West and reorder the league. That doesn't mean discussions won't happen in the coming weeks, he said.