Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti talks NIL, Northwestern at football media day
INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Petitti is about two weeks away from completing his first 100 days as commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.
During that time the former deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball has visited Congress and watched a major football scandal unfold at Northwestern. On Tuesday, he experienced Big Ten football media days for the first time.
Here is what we learned from his news conference Wednesday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Name, image, likeness issues are major concern
The commissioner believes much of what is happening with name, image, likeness opportunities for athletes is not true NIL, but a move toward a pay-for-play system that is driving recruiting and the transfer portal. He said he recently spent time with members of Congress to discuss the issue.
What does he consider true NIL?
“When I say true NIL, what I mean is the ability of a student-athlete to take advantage of their marketing rights from either local of national companies,” he said. “That depends on your ability, the exposure you receive, the strength of your social media, all those factors.”
Last week, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) unveiled a discussion draft of a college sports bill that would create the “College Athletics Corporation”. That organization would then create rules related to NIL and receive investigative and subpoena powers to enforce them.
“There is real momentum for bipartisan legislation that benefits student-athletes, protects the academic-athletic model and recognizes that a national competitive landscape needs national rules that can be enforced,” Petitti said.
There will be a wait-and-see approach to the Northwestern hazing allegations
While Petitti has been in regular contact with the administration of Northwestern to stay abreast of the hazing allegations that have been levied against multiple people in that athletic program, he noted that the conference will not launch its own investigations.
“The process in the conference on these matters is that it’s led by the institution, so there is no investigation being launched by the conference,” he said. “We’ll wait to see the result of those investigations and we’ll have further comments at that time.”
The situation should serve as an alarm for other programs to make sure no hazing policies are being violated. So far no other institutions in the conference have been hit with hazing allegations.
“When something like this happens our member institutions are going to take it upon themselves to do that, right?” he said. “The obvious result would be to look at practices to make sure that what is happening on campus meets the standards that we expect to provide a safe, healthy environment for student athletes.”
More: Northwestern football team discontinues annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin in wake of scandal
The Big Ten is fine with 16 teams … for now
The conference is set to grow to 16 teams next year with the additions to UCLA and USC. The increasingly fluid nature of conference alignment, however, means that more changes could occur, though none seem to be on the horizon at the moment.
The Big Ten announced its format for football scheduling this spring. The format for the other sports has yet to be revealed.
“This has come up a lot over the last couple of months," Petitti said. "What I’ll say is that the only direction I’m getting from leadership, our presidents and chancellors, our athletic directors, is to focus on USC and UCLA. We have a lot of work to do there.”
More: Bret Bielema believes bringing Jim Leonhard to Illinois is a winning move for his program
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Commissioner Tony Petitti on NIL, Northwestern at Big Ten media day
