Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti: With UCLA and USC addition looming, conference will announce their division look soon
The Big Ten is set for a shakeup of their division structure in the not-too-distant future. That was the message from Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti who said an announcement is right around the corner in terms of how the conference will line up for football.
With UCLA and USC set to join the Big Ten in 2024, the current conference alignment will necessarily have to change. How the divisions look (will there even be divisions?) is anyone’s guess, but Petitti said that an announcement is coming soon.
In talking this week with Rich Eisen on his nationally syndicated radio show, Petitti was asked what the division makeup might look like with UCLA and USC joining.
“That’s a great question, I think we’re just honestly maybe just a few days away from sor tof revealing what that will look like going forward. I think there has been a lot about divisions – no divisions…and a lot of work obviously was done before I arrived, in terms of what the right path is,” Petitti said on Eisen’s show.
“The conference is playing nine games, there’s a commitment to continue to do that. Everything was studied. I think you’ll see in really short order some information coming out about how we’re going to play and how we’re going to organize around our college football schedule. It’s just days away.”
Eisen, a Michigan graduate and an unabashed fan of the Wolverines, asked several probing questions of Petitti as it related to the new look for the Big Ten.
Petitti takes over for Kevin Warren, who left to become president of the Chicago Bears. Before Warren left, he participated in two seismic moves:
UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten in 2024, adding the crucial Los Angeles media market
Ending the conference’s decades-long relationship with ESPN and signing a new media deal with FOX, CBS and NBC.
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This means that the Big Ten is navigating a new look and feel to their television package and how they might play out.
“Credit to FOX because what they did in creating this noon window I think was non-traditional thinking, putting big games at noon has worked extremely well,” Petitti said.
“It has just been a great decision on FOX’s part. Give those guys credit to take the chance to do that. They had the research and the data and they were right. At 3:30, to think about what we did at CBS when I was there to really anchor the SEC at 3:30 for all those years- (it) has been a great window to have that. Then you look at the opportunity in prime – where I think we have that great opportunity for consistency today.
“In today’s world especially, being able to own noon and 3:30 and primetime across – there will be a little bit of a bridge because this year, CBS will have SEC until they transition to the Big Ten. It will be great.”
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