Last week Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren became Iron Man and snatched all of the Infinity Stones away from the SEC to form the most powerful conference in college sports.
When news dropped on Thursday that Pac-12 stalwarts USC and UCLA would leave the conference for the Big Ten in 2024, jaws dropped and the power paradigm immediately shifted north to Chicago, home of the Big 10.
While most expected the Big 10 to make headlines soon, the acquisition of the two California institutions was not on most’s immediate radars.
Even crazier, it’s most likely just the start of the conference’s power grab.
Leading the charge is now the most powerful person in all of college sports, Kevin Warren, the Big Ten’s sixth commissioner and its first Black commissioner in conference history.
Warren’s background isn’t a traditional one of a college athletics administrator.
He graduated from Grand Canyon University in 1986, received his MBA from Arizona State in 1988 and earned his JD from Notre Dame in 1990. The latter is important to note as it, ironically, establishes a connection to a potential Big 10 partner.
Warren then spent his career in the legal field and professional football.
He worked for the St. Louis Rams as VP of Football Administration, the Detroit Lions as the SVP of Business Operations and General Counsel and then the Minnesota Vikings, where he worked for 15 years, eventually rising to become their COO.
That made Warren the highest-ranking Black NFL team executive and the first Black COO in NFL history.
In 2019, he was tabbed as the successor to Jim Delaney, who brought the Big Ten to new heights.
Delaney launched the Big Ten Network, the first national cable network solely dedicated to a college conference. He also acquired new members in Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland and forged strong connections with all of his member institutions in their markets.
The Kevin Warren Era
In January 2020, the Kevin Warren era began and collided head first with Covid.
Games, tournaments, programs and seasons were canceled as the world struggled to deal with the pandemic.
Warren, the conference’s new commissioner, made the tough decision on August 11th, 2020 to cancel the upcoming fall sports season.
“The vote by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) was overwhelmingly in support of postponing fall sports and will not be revisited,” Warren wrote in an open letter to the Big Ten community. “The decision was thorough and deliberative, and based on sound feedback, guidance and advice from medical experts.”
While some praised the decision, others shredded him, including the then-president.
In September, after enduring the ire of fans, players, coaches and teams, Warren relented.
Some say he made the right decision. Others said he bowed to the pressure of negative financial implications from a lost college football season.
Whatever the reason, the league implemented testing requirements and began its season on October 24th, 2020.
It was a rocky start for the new commissioner. But then again, it was unchartered times for everyone across the world.
In January, Ohio State played in the CFP Championship Game and was crushed by Alabama. Still, a Big Ten team made the Championship in Warren’s first year as commissioner, so that slightly sweetened the bitter taste left by Covid.
Afterward, pandemic restrictions were lifted and some normalcy returned to college sports, granted with some rocky waves from the legalization of NIL on July 1st, 2021.
Pandemic bump in the road aside, Warren has done an admirable job as commissioner.
He successfully navigated the conference through the pandemic and recovery.
He also formed “The Alliance” with the Pac-12 and ACC, a move that might prove to be beneficial in the very near future as conference consolidation is only expected to accelerate.
Then Warren turned his attention to the Big Ten’s media rights negotiations.
The Big Ten Will Get Paid
The conference’s current media rights deal, a six-year, $2.65 billion deal expiring in 2023, was signed by former commissioner Jim Delaney in 2017. Its media partners, Fox, ESPN/ABC and CBS Sports, pay the conference roughly $441 million per year.
But after the SEC’s exclusive, 10-year, $3 billion deal with ESPN, Warren and his conference members started salivating for they knew they had a bigger footprint and more value.
So they went to work.
First, the Big Ten secured its partnership with Fox, which owns 61% of the Big Ten Network.
Next, the conference invited the other suitors to present their offerings. But in an unusual move, Fox executives, long-time partners of the conference, sat in on the presentations from ESPN/ABC, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and Amazon.
Then last week Sports Business Journal reported that Apple, who jumped into sports through deals with MLB and MLS, reappeared in the hunt after initially falling out of the discussions.
Regardless of the final partner list, the Big Ten Conference will be paid. And paid extremely well.
The original whispers surrounding their future media rights deal was $1 billion.
But with the additions of USC, UCLA and the LA market, that number will increase significantly. And should other teams defect to the conference, that number will only swell.
That will also ignite a significant boost to the Big Ten Network’s affiliate revenues as well.
And now the conference, and its media partners, will have more games and broadcast windows to sell.
Picture Big Ten Thursday Night football and then Big Ten football all day Saturday with four possible windows- noon, 330pm, 730pm and 930pm.
That’s dominance.
And that brings us back to Kevin Warren.
Warren understands the game. He recognizes the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with Fox Sports, which helped Delaney launch the Big Ten Network. He understands the need to work closely with his athletic directors like Ohio State’s Gene Smith. And he comprehends not only the importance of patient and methodical moves, but the need to use his assets and leverage wisely for they will reap huge benefits.
Some questioned his hiring after Delaney announced his retirement. Yet after Warren’s accomplishments to date, and after what he’s about to do, those doubters will quickly be silenced.
Kevin Warren sat back while the SEC got theirs in 2020.
Now he’s putting the world of college sports on notice without needing to rush into signing new media deals.
Kevin Warren has swooped in and snatched the Infinity Stones out of SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s Infinity Gauntlet.
Now all he has to do is say his name and snap.
