INDIANAPOLIS — The Big Ten’s rookie commissioner touched down in enemy territory and set about his secret mission: Find common ground with the SEC and establish a partnership that could haul college sports into a new era.
It was the spring of 2023 and Tony Petitti was in his first month on the job, fresh off a series of meetings with Big Ten presidents and athletic directors.
“Working with the SEC was a priority,” Petitti told the Hotline last week during Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. “So many challenges are similar. The resources are similar. The decision-making. The influence in terms of fans. The size of it … So I flew to Birmingham a few weeks into the job.”
Upon arrival, a funny thing happened: Petitti did not feel like the road team. He was comfortable with everything — with the Birmingham vibe, with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and with the ethos of a conference that, despite the Big Ten’s best efforts, has dominated the sport for years.
In some ways, Petitti was on familiar ground.
Three decades earlier, during his tenure with CBS Sports, Petitti had walked into the SEC offices alongside fellow executive Mike Aresco and president Sean McManus to negotiate a groundbreaking television deal.
“At the time, it was the SEC and the Big East on CBS,” Petitti recalled. “And we made the decision to make it the SEC only. So we flew to see (commissioner) Roy Kramer. We had this idea: ‘You can be the first conference to have your own network. We’ll give you 3:30 p.m. (Eastern), and you give us the best game.’
“So when I went down there (in the spring of 2023), I felt like I had some ties to the conference.”
The Queens native hit it off immediately with Sankey, who was raised in upstate New York.
“There were a lot of good stories to tell about that history,” Petitti said, “and Greg was a part of a lot of that. We have a good, honest working relationship, and I’m proud of the things we’ve been able to do together.”
Those “things” include nothing less than orchestrating a directional change in major college football.
USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are doing more than switching conferences on Friday when they officially enter the Big Ten.
After so many decades in the Pac-12, which was three time zones behind logistically and light years behind strategically, the West Coast quartet will join a conference at the forefront of the new world order in college sports.
The Big Ten is a mover, a shaker and — thanks to its $1 billion annual media rights deal with Fox, CBS and NBC — a rainmaker.
“You have a collection of institutions that are committed to competing at the highest level of college athletics but also holding sacred the relationship between academics and athletics,” said Washington athletic director Pat Chun, who graduated from, and worked for, Ohio State.
“Because of the resources of the Big Ten, that puts you into position to lead.”
Since taking charge of the Big Ten in May 2023, Petitti has overseen the additions of Oregon and Washington, carved a lucrative position for the Big Ten in the College Football Playoff’s next chapter (starting in 2026), established a joint advisory board with the SEC and worked with his fellow Power Four commissioners to settle the House v NCAA antitrust lawsuit and establish new roster sizes for all sports.
“For the four new members, being part of the Big Ten was important (for having) a seat at the table where they have the influence and the ability to help to drive change.,” Petitti said.
“The Big Ten is in a good position, and those four really significant universities now are part of that group, and they expand our influence.”
Petitti is unlike either of the past two Pac-12 commissioners, Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, in that his career trajectory includes stops relevant to running the Big Ten.
Scott was in charge of the Women’s Tennis Association before he took over the Pac-12; Kliavkoff was president of MGM Sports and Entertainment. Both were ultimately ill-equipped to provide the leadership and strategic insight needed.
Meanwhile, Petitti was heavily involved in college sports during his years spent as a programming executive for ABC and CBS. He was president of the MLB Network, then served as the sport’s deputy commissioner.
“The way I see the job is to work with the presidents and the athletic directors to best represent the Big Ten,” he said. “And where you start is that there are certain things we do that are wholly contained inside the conference. The regular-season schedule — that’s our decision-making.
“But then there are a lot of other things really unique in college athletics where there are multiple other leagues that do the same things you do, that all have their own unique governance structures.
“Then when you look at the past couple years and see so much change. The only way to address it is to come together with colleagues from other leagues to make decisions that are good for everybody.
“But that doesn’t mean everybody’s perspective is exactly the same when you walk into those meetings. So my job is to represent the Big Ten and try to build consensus. Whether it’s the process to get to a settlement (in the House case) or how we felt about the CFP or where we are with roster limits — all that is sort of the same thing over and over again: Build consensus in the league, represent the league well outside, and use the influence you have.
“Ultimately, because of the governance structure, there isn’t always going to be some level of compromise.
“Sometimes, we’ll have to compromise a little more. Other times, other leagues might have to compromise more. That’s the process. It starts internally, and it always moves out. It’s a system that repeats itself.”
Within that repeating cycle of process and policy, as the NCAA struggled to fend off lawsuits and restructure its economic model, a reality emerged that strengthened the bond between Petitti and Sankey, between the Big Ten and SEC.
“We are facing so many complicated things,” Petitti said. “So how can you control the amount of people in a room? Because it’s hard to make decisions when there are a lot of people in the room.
“Are there places the two of us can build consensus that’s helpful in getting others to the right place? That’s where it all started.”
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