Just an absolute horrible concept, just when you think the B1G commissioner couldn’t do anything dumber than Warren…Petitti steps up in a big way.
The best part of Petitti’s shell game is it took USC and Michigan — apparently the only rationally thinking members of the stoic and stodgy conference — to grind the gears and slow the roll of running the conference off a financial cliff.
The Big Ten is calling this proposed $2.4 billion deal with the devil a “plan” — because plan sounds like something that was analyzed and scrutinized and is an agreeable structure. Not a deal, which sounds more like somebody is winning and somebody is getting the short end of it.
Let me explain, as easily as possibly — again, without getting into the weeds of it all — who’s winning and who’s losing: if you’re trying to pass this deal without each university’s board of trustees digesting the specifics, you might be on the short end of it.
The fact universities at some schools are using presidents and/or athletic directors to sign off on this deal is remarkably reckless. University presidents are hired to raise money, athletic directors are hired to spend it.
My god, this can’t be real.
The Big Ten reported $928 million in revenue last year, and in fiscal 2025, USA TODAY Sports projects the revenue to jump to $1.2-1.4 billion. Billion, with a B.
There isn’t a revenue problem in the Big Ten, there’s a budget problem.
And then there’s Petitti, opening his arms to private equity sharks whose sole purpose in life is making deals in which they benefit. They’re not just giving you $2.4 billion out of the goodness of their heart.
And they sure as hell aren’t doing it without influence, unintended or otherwise. They’re doing it because they’ve got a big fish on the line, one who’s hungry and needs to feed.
No matter how many souls it takes down with it.
