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New B1G Commissioner

Seems hard to know if this is a good or bad hire. But I think the days of the ideal skill set for a candidate being a well regarded AD from another P5 conference are probably over. A sports business/media executive like this guy seems like a logical place to look.
Conferences are becoming an arms race for top "brands" and top TV timeslots on major networks. That is where their bread is buttered. In reality, conferences should have someone in charge who knows how to maximize TV revenue, while another person is in charge of the actual sports side of things.
 
Here's my rant.

We have now casually gone from something called student athletes (where many schools cheated the rules against paying them) into openly paying athletes to enroll and represent "our" schools in one or more sports. A few may actually be students trying to get a higher education than the relatively poor one many of our secondary schools are providing, but that's not why most are enrolled I would guess.

Then we expand beyond any distance that could reasonably be said to represent normal rivalries or schools at which relatively the same kinds of kids would attend.

Meanwhile we get a check from those who want to sell soap and find that people will watch our teams play while they sell the soap two or three dozen times during the game, putting the action on the field into secondary importance.

Then we open it to gambling on a larger than life scale, and only those who have never studied history fail to see the problem with that.

Now we put one of "them" in charge.

Maybe many or even most of those on the board have no problem with any of that, but it's a long ways from college athletics. It's TV entertainment designed to sell soap and to keep those gambling dollars rolling in.

For me, it would be more honest to eliminate the enrollment requirement and have various schools become minor league affilates of the completely professional leagues. I'd watch that. Since I don't gamble I wouldn't worry about fixers either. The universities would still get a big check to spend more money on professors who don't teach students anymore. Win win.

Then maybe some schools could start up their own college athletic teams made up of students and play near by teams home and home on a Saturday afternoon on a field somewhere on campus. I'd watch that too but for a different reason.

Right now it's all bread and circusses as the Romans said.
I'd have to sit and look at the history of it all to give an exact inflection point, but this has been going on for quite a while. Schools were trying to sneak money to players and recruits back in the 70s and 80s. TV deals have been rapidly growing since the 90s when ESPN and others became fixtures on cable. Athletes have been "playing school" to try and become professional athletes for a very long time. Gambling on college sports was being done for a long time (whether legally or illegally), it has just become more accessible in recent years.

You aren't wrong about any of your points, my argument would be that none of these issues are new. The difference is we've entered a phase where no one is trying to hide any of these anymore. College football has been minor league professional football for decades. People's love for college sports have turned them into big business. We'd been sold for years by the NCAA that it wasn't, but it definitely was.
 



I think most people knew quickly he was a disaster. Not sure how he'll do with the Bears but he should never sniff CFB again.
If someone wants to hire him into a CFB role, there is enough evidence there now that they deserve what they get if they do.
 
Conferences are becoming an arms race for top "brands" and top TV timeslots on major networks. That is where their bread is buttered. In reality, conferences should have someone in charge who knows how to maximize TV revenue, while another person is in charge of the actual sports side of things.
Preferably with the former working under the latter.
 



Here's my rant.

We have now casually gone from something called student athletes (where many schools cheated the rules against paying them) into openly paying athletes to enroll and represent "our" schools in one or more sports. A few may actually be students trying to get a higher education than the relatively poor one many of our secondary schools are providing, but that's not why most are enrolled I would guess.
Most folks assume that NIL brought all the dirty money in the open, but I'd bet dollars to donuts there's still dirty money to overcome the limitations of NIL.
 
After reading the ESPN article it really seems more like Warren bailed to the Bears before people found out what a mess he made of the new tv contract and he was fired by the conference
I think most people knew quickly he was a disaster. Not sure how he'll do with the Bears but he should never sniff CFB again.
Dear Chicago Bear Fans, Players and Owners,

Outstanding hire. You should lock Kevin Warren up to a lifetime contract and secure his presence with your club into perpetuity!

Sincerely,

The Green Bay Packers!
 
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Dear Chicago Bear Fans, Players and Owners,

Outstanding hire. You should lock Kevin Warren up to a lifetime contract and secure his presence with your club into perpetuity!

Sincerely,

The Green Bay Packers!
And Minnesota Vikings
 



Just pay it. Warren did get the biggest TV contract in history inked before he left. The BIG won‘t even feel it. Add in all the money to be made from gambling kiosks in stadiums, all is good.
He actually didn't get it inked, try reading the articles on it.
 

Preferably with the former working under the latter.
In reality, you'd like to have someone who is running things who is good at managing both. Hire someone who good at managing people and running the business to run the league. Then have people who report to that person who are good at running athletics and another that is good at marketing/TV deals.
 

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