Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti opened the league\u2019s annual football media days Tuesday under the bright lights of Las Vegas, where he tackled some of the thorniest issues in college athletics.<\/p>\n
Those issues included playoff expansion, revenue sharing and why the Midwest-rooted conference took its show to the desert.<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging session, Petitti returned repeatedly to what\u2019s become the Big Ten\u2019s drumbeat: the future of the College Football Playoff must emphasize performance on the field, not debates in a boardroom.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at some of the key takeaways from Petitti\u2019s time on the podium on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Big Ten Football Media Days Q&A: Tony Petitti<\/a><\/p>\n Petitti doubled down on his league\u2019s preference for a 16-team CFP format that grants automatic qualifiers \u2014 particularly the 4-4-2-2-1 model. <\/p>\n Under that structure, four automatic berths would go to the Big Ten and SEC, two each to the ACC and Big 12, one to a Group of Five program, and three would be filled with at-large bids.<\/p>\n \u201cFormats that increase the discretion and role of the College Football Playoff selection committee will have a difficult time getting support from the Big Ten,\u201d Petitti explained. \u201cWe want the results on the field to matter most.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Ten\u2019s preferred model stands in contrast to the 5+11 format championed by the SEC, which would award spots to the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams \u2014 a model that critics say invites more subjectivity and politics into the process.<\/p>\n Petitti suggested that the more committee-driven approach opens the door for inconsistencies based on strength of schedule and rankings \u2014 especially in a world where conferences play differing numbers of league games. The Big Ten currently plays nine; the SEC plays eight.<\/p>\n Still, Petitti downplayed the significance of that difference under the 4-4-2-2-1 proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a model that emphasizes automatic qualifiers, the number of conference games matters less,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we do want, though, is an incentive for schools to schedule more challenging nonconference opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n Petitti also pushed back on the idea that some teams might benefit from softer in-conference slates. Asked about Indiana\u2019s 2024 schedule, he noted that at the beginning of the season the Hoosiers were slated to face the two teams that had appeared in the national title game the previous year.<\/p>\n SEC-Big Ten unity still possible<\/p>\n Despite the current impasse between college football\u2019s two most powerful leagues, Petitti remained optimistic that a compromise could be reached with the SEC.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re obviously not in the same place on these discussions,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the goal would be to bring people back together. Every time the two leagues have come together, good things have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Petitti also reaffirmed that the Big Ten and SEC remain the key voices in CFP reform discussions.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO: 6 key quotes from Curt Cignetti during podium session at Big Ten Media Days<\/a><\/p>\n Revenue sharing left to the schools<\/p>\n On another major front \u2014 how college athletic departments will now begin sharing revenue with athletes \u2014 Petitti said that decisions are being left to the individual institutions, at least for now.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no obligation to get to any number, what sports you choose to support, how you allocate the money among your student-athletes \u2014 that\u2019s really a decision that\u2019s made institutionally,\u201d Petitti said.<\/p>\n He said the Big Ten\u2019s approach is to let schools shape what works best for them, while continuing to fund all programs and support student-athletes across the board.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Big Ten, we\u2019ve focused on letting our members make the decision that\u2019s right for their programs and right for their student-athletes,\u201d Petitti explained.<\/p>\n Why Las Vegas?<\/p>\n This year\u2019s media days location raised some eyebrows. The Big Ten has traditionally hosted the event in Indianapolis, but this year\u2019s shift to Las Vegas marked a significant change.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be candid, this was a logistics thing,\u201d Petitti said. \u201cSome things were going on in Indianapolis. It just wasn\u2019t possible this year.\u201d<\/p>\n While Petitti didn\u2019t name the event, the WNBA All-Star Game was held in Indianapolis over the weekend. Still, the city has hosted overlapping sports events before \u2014 it\u2019s unlikely hosting the WNBA\u2019s All-Star weekend would\u2019ve prohibited Indianapolis from also hosting Big Ten Football Media Days.<\/p>\n Petitti added that the conference\u2019s expanding footprint \u2014 now reaching the West Coast with recent additions like USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington \u2014 made Las Vegas a logical choice. <\/p>\n The Big Ten also plans to bring its men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball tournaments to Las Vegas in the coming years.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth cities are terrific hosts,\u201d Petitti said. \u201cBut given how far the conference stretches now, being out west made sense this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead<\/p>\n From playoff reform to athlete compensation to expanding into new geographies, Petitti\u2019s remarks painted the picture of a league in transformation \u2014 but one that, in his view, remains focused on its core values.<\/p>\n With no shortage of change on the horizon, Petitti\u2019s message was clear: The Big Ten wants control over its future, and it wants that future to be earned on the field \u2014 not behind closed doors.<\/p>\n Not yet a member of TheHoosier? 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Join\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti opened the league\u2019s annual football media days Tuesday under the bright lights of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,723,20593,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-228222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-in","10":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114899441729828503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}