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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 2, 2019

Jim Delany

Rosemont, Ill.

JIM DELANY: Good morning. Just have a couple of preliminary comments, some looking backwards and maybe a couple looking forward. Had a really nice dinner last night with the coaches and some of our staff. I know they're excited to get going. Everybody is undefeated, and it's an exciting time of the year for them.

Looking backwards, also, I'm really pleased with the quality and the quantity of the teams and the players that we have been able to put out there on behalf of the Big Ten, especially over the last 20 years or so. There's some data in front of you that speaks to the postseason efforts, the regular season efforts, and media coverage and fan participation. We led the country for 43 years in attendance. We also have more media partners than any other conference, so all of our games are nationally telecast, and in particular I think the growth of BTN has really aided and supported Big Ten basketball. But to have CBS, FOX, and ESPN regularly promoting marketing of Big Ten teams, I think is really good.

I'd like to sort of tip my hat to the basketball committee. I was a member 30 years ago, but they continue to refine the tournament and develop it, and, you know, they say that strength of schedule matters, and they act that way. So it's not just a talking point for them.

Last year they introduced a new metric. There's no one metric that's magic, but the fact that the NET was exposed for the first time early on, it looked like it was maybe a little bit off, but as the season wore on, I think it was a good metric. I like the idea of having sort of a bundle of indicators to indicate who's playing whom and who's winning. Ultimately it's up to the members of the committee, but last year, I think 13 of our 14 schools were in the top 100 in the NET, another seven or eight in the top 60.

Going out and playing an ACC challenge, Gavitt Games, and big events, and also moving to 20 games in a year where we won 80 percent of our non-conference games really reflected well on us. I think it's measurable success, and resulted in eight teams advancing to the tournament. And quite honestly, with a couple of breaks, we could have had a ninth or tenth team. So not every year maybe will be as successful as last year was, but I think it's indicative of the committee walking the walk with regard to strength of schedule, and I think you're going to see more conferences go to 20 games as we have and space the games. You'll note that we play 14 games -- everybody plays a couple in early December, which really helps us space games in January and February. I think we play 58 games in 75 days from January 2 to the end of our tournament. We play 58 games in 38 days early in the year.

Basketball is a two-semester sport. A lot of people think basketball doesn't really kick off until football is over. That's not true in the Big Ten with the games we play against quality opponents. Two years ago or last year, we had a replay of the Michigan-Villanova championship game of the previous year. This year we'll have a replay of the Michigan State-Duke game with an Elite 8 game as well as Purdue and Virginia. So you'll see sprinkled through November, December, games that really pop.

So I think that with two semesters, if you're not trying to make basketball relevant from the middle of November until the middle of December, you're not really doing your job. We couldn't do what we've done without working very closely with our coaches, and so I appreciate them collaborating with us in that respect.

Let me stop there. That's looking back a little bit. Looking forward a little bit, we've got a lot of returning players. I think we have 17 players who are first, second, third team or honorable mention Big Ten, and we've got a lot of good young players coming into the conference. With the media partners that we have and the venues that we have and the loyal fans that we have, I think we're really well-positioned.

Last point, three years ago -- a little bit more than three years ago I think was the third week of September -- the FBI announced a variety of arrests and charges. Those cases seemed to be put to bed. The NCAA now is following up on those cases. While it may have only affected the tip of the iceberg in terms of recruiting, it really did corrupt the recruiting process.

So I'd like to give a nod to our coaches and programs for the fewest mentions in sort of the FBI rap sheet. I think most people who follow basketball closely realize that no conference, no team, no individual is perfect, but I would tell you that I think that over time that our conference coaches have recruited in the spirit of the rules, and when something goes wrong, there's an acknowledgment and we try to work with it. But it's going to be interesting to see the price that people pay for having participated in what is obviously some corrupt practices. Corporate entities who work closely with our institutions clearly were engaged in a pattern of affecting recruiting outcomes.

So I don't know exactly how the NCAA will handle this at the end of the day, but while it may have only touched 1 percent of the players, it really did, I think, affect and impact what ought to be a choice process for our students to go where they want to go to school, play where they want to play, and sort of let the chips fall where they may. So that was sort of an unfortunate but not a shocking revelation, and it's taken three years, and it'll probably be another year or two before it's finally worked out. But I appreciate our coaches and the efforts they've made to operate within the spirit of the rule.

With that, let me just stop at this point and see what questions you may have.

Q. A lot of people are talking about the California bill where players will be able to capitalize on their images and likenesses. Where do you stand on that?
JIM DELANY: Yeah, I'm a huge basketball fan, and as such, I appreciate the games that are played on the playground, I appreciate the games that are played in high school. I love the college game. I watch the NBA in the spring and I watch the Olympics every four years, and I think each of those has an appropriate place. Certainly the high schools and the colleges are education-based systems.

You know, I think that there's going to be a period of time between now and the time that bill goes into effect -- and I'm sure there will be lots of NCAA conversations, maybe some Congressional conversations, maybe some litigation -- but my view is that there may be some players who are ready for the professional ranks, but that's not the college ranks. And I would like to see players who are ready for the professional ranks to be able to access the professional game, either through the G-League or I'd like to see the owners and the unions open up opportunities for young people as you have in baseball.

Same thing about the NFL; we're not the minor leagues. We're involved in an enterprise that touches 100,000 players, and maybe there's 1 percent or 2 percent that may have commercial value, but I would prefer that they have the choice to move that into the professional ranks, because I really don't see much difference myself between name image and likeness payments by a corporate sponsor or pay for play.

It's a belief system I have. I know that people differ on it. I think the law of unintended consequences and the law of slippery slope apply here, and so my view is I'll be out in about 85 days. I think this will be discussed, and I think it will be litigated, and I think it will be a Congressional issue. We're not perfect, but I think that the opportunities that we have for the great many shouldn't be sacrificed at the altar of the 1 percent that probably would have an opportunity to benefit here. It's a college game. It's different than the NBA, different than the Olympics, different than the playground. So I hope we're able to maintain the opportunities we have for men and women and avoid pay for play insofar as we can.

Q. Can you discuss how the transition is going from you to Kevin at this point?
JIM DELANY: Yeah, it's gone really well. There have been really two phases. Kevin was wrapping up with Minnesota this summer, and so we had a chance to meet a couple times here in Chicago in person as well as I was in Minneapolis on the BTN football tour and we had a chance to have dinner there. And we were talking really weekly for an hour, hour and a half. One week it was mine, the next week was his. So we had a great -- we developed a great rapport. He came to work as an employee of the Big Ten on September 16, and he shares an office next to mine. And we've had all of our partners come in, all of our network partners, all of our law firms, our full partners -- the Rose Bowl has been through, branding partners. And so I've tried to share with them on a highlight fashion some of the challenges we've had over the last decade. I know what it is to be a new commissioner, whether it's in the Ohio Valley (Conference) or here, so I've tried to be responsive to him.

On January 2, he'll take over. January 1 is my last date, but it's been a really great experience. I've gotten to know him really well. Experienced guy, trained as a lawyer, has an MBA degree, has worked for a couple of NFL franchises. But the real insight that he brings, I think, is as a former player himself and his kids played. His daughter was a track and field person at Occidental, and his son is a football player at Mississippi State. So between his own personal experiences, his education, his career, and now the opportunity to spend three months together working on a daily basis and put faces and organizations together, I think has been really constructive. A lot of people say you can't have two people in the same office in this kind of way, but for us it's been uniformly positive, and it's been great to get to know him. I think he'll be a great leader in the Big Ten Conference in years to come.

Q. Getting back to the California law, what sort of obstacles do you see that posing for college athletics?
JIM DELANY: Well, you know, it's three years away. And I've read about the bill; I haven't read the bill itself. But essentially college sports is a national undertaking. As such, we have national television, we have national competition, we have national recruitment. And it just defies -- is beyond my imagination to know how we can have different states pass laws with respect to the undertaking of academics or recruitment. So ultimately I think there has to be a national solution. Whether it comes from Congress or whether the NCAA is able to find a middle road here, that's sort of to be determined.

But you know, it's unusual. It's interesting. I don't think it was necessarily predictable, but it looks like there's some copycat bills out there. But I really don't understand and don't fully comprehend how -- whether you're in South Carolina or whether you're in New York or whether you're in California, how we can operate under 50 different statutes. I view it as a national undertaking. I view it as a unique -- really a unique setting. We have 100,000 student-athletes in Division I, about 500,000 throughout the system. In fact, Big Ten alone has 10,000 student-athletes, which is double the number of all the professional sports in America. So you have less than 5,000 professionals, and you have 10,000 athletes in the Big Ten and 500,000.

So what works in the Olympics with 500 athletes every four years and what works in the NFL or NBA with 1,500 players doesn't necessarily work for 100,000 players. So they're very different systems.

We have equity across the conference and across the NCAA, so it's about 50/50 in terms of the educational opportunities that are provided. In professional sports, it's like 90/10. Only the WNBA and a little bit of soccer, that you have that sort of equity. So they're a different set of organizations. They have their place. I love professional sports. Didn't get a chance to play them, but I have great affection for them. I follow them. Bulls fan, Cubs fan, Knicks fan, Giants.

But very different than what we do, and I would just like to see more opportunity, more choice for our students for making the choice as to which college they want to go to or if they're on a professional track. To me it should be more like baseball where the minor leagues -- I think there's 6,000 young people playing in minor league baseball and really none in the NFL and just a few in the NBA.

So I think it's an appropriate track for people who want to pursue that, and I think the college system is uniquely separate, uniquely different historically and should be retained insofar as possible. As Arne Duncan said, other than the military, it probably does as great a job of educating, providing leadership for young people as any institution in the country.

Q. I think the Big Ten distributed about $800 million. I think that was the revenue last year. What would be your message directly to the athletes in this league who believe they should capitalize off their likenesses and their images as to why they shouldn't be allowed to do that?
JIM DELANY: You know, my point would be that the student who plays athletics in the Big Ten is in school for education first, that there's an amazing opportunity to get a world-class education here, and there's also amazing opportunity to compete in a great conference with great recognition and, if they so choose, to prepare themselves to be a professional some day, whether it's in Europe, Asia or in the U.S. But that it is a unique -- it's not the NBA. It's not the WNBA. It is an educational arrangement, full-time students playing basketball or football. We have been fortunate, the world has changed a lot, and I think we have responded to that in a lot of ways, whether it's the scholarship plus full cost of attendance plus degree completion, come back when you need to, a voice and a vote inside the system that didn't exist a while back, multi-year scholarships. So I think a lot of progress has been made on behalf of the student. I've been an advocate for students and for support of students.

But to me, the outer limit is the cost of college. Once we're beyond the cost of college, we're in pay for play, and I think that puts us in a totally different game. It probably does affect 1 or 2 percent of the players, but I would rather see the resolution to have those 1 or 2 percent of players to have the opportunity to go directly into professional sports, whether it's baseball, basketball or football, and really not to ask the whole system to turn. I think there is a law of unintended consequences. I do think it would undermine the fairness in the recruitment. And while I understand their point of view, I have a different point of view, and I don't know that I can convince them of the rightness of my position. I respect theirs.

There are cases in litigation. There is action in state legislatures. Ultimately there may be a federal solution. But my view is you can differ with somebody and still have tremendous respect for them, and I certainly do for our students, and glad we have them, and glad they can take the opportunity of a world-class education while playing at a very high level in the college game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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