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Jim Polzin: How Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren Has 'gained The Confidence' Of Conference Leaders 온라인카지노

INDIANAPOLIS — Kevin Warren’s opening statement Tuesday morning at Lucas Oil Stadium lasted over 21 minutes and included six uses of either the word “bold” or some form of it. The Big Ten commissioner used it two more times during the question-and-answer session that took up the second half of his news conference at the conference’s annual media event.

Warren already had walked the walk last month, orchestrating the shocking addition of UCLA and Southern Cal to the Big Ten starting in 2024, which certainly qualifies as a bold move. Now he was talking the talk, reminding anyone who was listening that the Big Ten is ready to flex its muscles during a transformational time in college sports.

“I’m focused on being realistic about the state of college athletics, about accepting our responsibility to shape college athletics, lead college athletics, fortify college athletics,” he said. “To be bold, to be strong, to be innovative.”

This was Warren displaying a swagger, albeit from behind a dais, at a time when his approval rating within the conference is soaring.

“He’s done a hell of a job,” said Barry Alvarez, the former University of Wisconsin football coach and athletic director who knows a thing or two about swagger. “I think he’s grown with the job, he’s grown into it.”

Rewind almost two years — Aug. 11, 2020, to be exact — and remember a time when Warren’s leadership was being questioned. Canceling the fall sports season due to the COVID-19 pandemic was hardly his decision to make alone — presidents, chancellors and medical personnel were all involved in the process — but Warren was the face of the conference and didn’t do a good job explaining how the Big Ten came to that conclusion.

What was telling at the time was how little public support Warren was receiving from what should have been his allies: Football coaches were complaining and some administrators were calling into question whether an official vote among presidents and chancellors actually took place.

Adding two programs from Los Angeles wasn’t nearly as controversial for Warren as that decision two summers ago, but there had to be some healthy debate in the Big Ten due to the geographical mismatch and the fact the conference would have to stab ally Pac-12 in the back to make it happen. But, as Alvarez pointed out Tuesday, there was a consensus from the Big Ten athletic directors and academic leadership group to push forward with the UCLA and USC expansion and that blockbuster move was kept under wraps until the day of the announcement.

“I think that speaks volumes,” Alvarez said.

“I think he’s gained the confidence of our leadership throughout the league,” he added.

Warren shared an anecdote that provides some insight into how he wants to help shape the Big Ten’s future, especially during what he called “probably a five-year period of change” in college athletics.

When Warren was attending law school at Notre Dame in the early 1990s, he’d often make the drive from Chicago to South Bend, Indiana, and see a Sears and Roebuck building on the highway along the way. That gave him flashbacks to growing up in the 1960s and the happy days when his parents would bring home a Sears catalog to help with ideas for gifts.

“Sears and Roebuck is not in existence anymore,” Warren said as way of making a point. “I don’t want to be Sears and Roebuck.”

Warren doesn’t have to worry about that right now. At a time when other power conferences not named the SEC are scrambling, the Big Ten is growing. Although Warren declined to provide insight on numbers or details, he said a new media rights deal will be completed sooner rather than later.

UCLA and USC will give the Big Ten 16 teams and that number could grow as well. It’s likely Warren and Co. Are waiting on Notre Dame to decide its own future before seriously entertaining other suitors.

“I get asked every single day, ‘What’s next?’” Warren said. “It may include future expansion, but it will be done for the right reasons at the right time with our student-athletes, academic and athletic empowerment at the center of any and all decisions that we will make regarding any further expansions.

“We will not expand just to expand. It will be strategic, it will add additional value to our conference, and it will provide a platform to even have our student-athletes be put on a larger platform so they can build their careers but also that they have an opportunity to grow and learn from an education and from an athletic standpoint.”

In another flashback to his childhood Tuesday, Warren said he was the type to challenge things that didn’t seem right to him. He’d ask why or, in some cases, why not.

Warren hasn’t changed in that regard and, during a tumultuous time in college athletics, he’s made it clear he’ll think outside the box to help strengthen the Big Ten.

“I think there’s two types of people in the world, that they look at change as it’s a problem or they look at change as an opportunity,” he said. “I’m one of those individuals that, when change occurs, I get excited about it. It’s really an opportunity for us to do a lot of things that people have thought about but maybe been a little bit reticent to do.

“So I’m embracing change. I’m going to be very aggressive.”

Photos: Big Ten football media days kick off in Indianapolis

Nebraska cornerback Quinton Newsome talks to reporters during a news conference at the Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in Indianapolis.