The Big Ten got too big, and fighting ensued. What’s next for a conference losing its identity?

The Athletic has live coverage of the third release of the 2025 College Football Playoff Rankings. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and the Big Ten’s presidents and athletic directors spent more than a year exploring potential outside investors in hopes of raising a bonanza of cash. As of late last week, it appeared they would finally land their white whale. Petitti was prepared to go forward on a deal by which UC Investments, a public pension plan manager, would pay the league $2.4 billion for a 10 percent cut of a new company, Big Ten Enterprises, even if two holdouts, Michigan and USC, refused to sign on. Advertisement But on Monday, after several weeks of public dissension within league ranks — including the chairman of Michigan’s Board of Regents calling the plan a “payday loan” — the investors got spooked and hit pause on the discussions for at least several months. No $130 million checks for the other 16 schools just yet. No grant of rights — in which schools cede their media rights to the conference — extension through 2046 just yet. On one hand, it’s surprising Petitti would even consider moving forward with such a transformative decision without the approval of all 18 members. On the other hand, is it even possible to get 18 schools spread across the entire continent to unanimously agree on anything? The Big Ten has gotten too big. For nearly 20 years, the league was a stable, manageable group of 11 mostly Midwestern universities (save Penn State) that kept the members largely in lockstep with the league and with each other. There was no noticeable difference when Nebraska joined in 2011. But the conference has added six members since 2014, two each under longtime commissioner Jim Delany (Rutgers and Maryland), short-lived successor Kevin Warren (USC and UCLA) and current leader Petitti (Oregon and Washington). In doing so, each achieved their most tangible goal: making more money. The Big Ten’s TV rights jumped from about $250 million a year in 2014 to a $440 million average from 2017-23 to a staggering $1 billion average for the current deal, which runs from 2023-2030. But that windfall was not without consequences: Michigan State fans forced to stay up until 2:30 a.m. (ET) to watch the Spartans play a football game in Pacific time. UCLA basketball fans trading Las Vegas for Indianapolis for conference tournament weekend. Maryland volleyball players flying cross-country to play a Thursday night match. Advertisement The conference no longer has a cohesive identity like its “It Just Means More” SEC counterpart, mostly because the schools no longer have much in common. No one tuning into the Week 9 UCLA-Indiana game on Fox thought to themselves, “Now this is Big Ten football!” And now, behind the scenes, there is unprecedented friction in a long-harmonious conference. It began in 2020, when Warren alienated many of the league’s coaches and administrators with his handling of the initial cancellation of the season during the pandemic. Several schools opposed the decision and threatened to play an independent schedule before the league ultimately reversed its decision. Three years later came the Connor Stalions signal-stealing scandal at Michigan, when the Wolverines’ rivals pressured the still-new-on-the-job Petitti to drop a hammer on the school. His solution, suspending Jim Harbaugh for three games, was seen by Michigan as an egregious overreach and as not nearly enough punishment by everyone else. Petitti to his credit did manage to get all 18 coaches and ADs to lock arms in support of his controversial 4-4-2-2-1 concept for an expanded College Football Playoff. The problem: He couldn’t get anyone outside of the Big Ten on board. And now, the most momentous venture of his three-year tenure has run into a wall. The deal will pay out that up-front cash in a tiered structure. The most valuable programs, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, could receive as much as $190 million, while the others would get anywhere from $110-$150 million. USC opposes it because the school feels it belongs in that top tier, which seems like something that could be negotiated. “We greatly value our membership in the Big Ten Conference and understand and respect the larger landscape, but we also recognize the power of the USC brand is far-reaching, deeply engaging, and incredibly valuable,” USC AD Jen Cohen said in an open letter to Trojans fans last week. “And we will always fight first for what’s best for USC.” Advertisement And in Ann Arbor, Michigan board members and other officials have made it clear they oppose the entire concept of selling off long-term equity for short-term cash. “The University of Michigan is not desperate,” Mark Bernstein, chairman of the Michigan board of regents, told The Athletic. Perhaps Petitti and many of his members were too eager to land the plane. Perhaps easing the immediacy will give him time to win over the two dissenters. With or without those two,...

The Big Ten got too big, and fighting ensued. What’s next for a conference losing its identity?

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The Big Ten got too big, and fighting ensued. What’s next for a conference losing its identity?

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