COLUMBUS — Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren spoke at the Big Ten football media days in Indianapolis on Thursday. The much anticipated conversation consisted mainly of statements from Warren, with a few questions from reporters.
Below are the updates from his comments at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Kevin Warren
+ Warren wanted to focus on three major themes: respecting the 125-year tradition of the Big Ten conference, to protect the conference and its constituents, and to successfully transform the conference as college athletics continues to evolve and grow.
+ “We are a powerful force in college athletics. We are a powerful force in college football and I expect out Big Ten teams to do very well in our bowl games. I expect them to compete for the National Championship every single season.”
+ Warren mentioned that it was a special day for him, the conference, partners, athletic directors, the student-athletes and their families, and others.
+ Barry Alvarez will be joining the Big Ten conference as a special advisor for football.
+ On COVID-19, ” This was not a perfect time for us in the conference but it was productive. We learned.”
+ He looks forward to visiting the 14 member institutions this fall and spending time on the campuses to watch the student-athletes play.
+ The Big Ten conference will be hiring a chief medical officer.
+ Warren announced the creation of the George and Viola Taliaferro fellowship that helps young people who strive to work in college athletics build a career.
+ Warren believes that name, image and likeness needs federal legislation.
+ This past year he learned the importance of people and the importance of relationships. “What makes college football special is our people and our relationships.”
+ On the possibility of expanding the Big Ten, Warren said we are in an inflection point in college athletics. “Whether it’s name, image, and likeness, whether it’s the Alson case, whether it’s potential college football playoff expansion, whether it’s schools from one conference joining another conference, these are the kind of issues that we all will be dealing with here this year and for many years in the future. And so, again, that’s the world that we live in right now and I know from where we sit we’re always constantly evaluating what’s in the best interests of the conference.”
+ On the potential college football playoff expansion, Warren said he already started having these conversations with the internal Big Ten family this summer. He has been gathering information to decide what they feel is best moving forward regarding divisional play, scheduling, etc.
+ On COVID-19 protocols, Warren said the conference voted to decentralize the process for COVID-19 protocols so now the schools will be crafting their policies and procedures and they will be finalized with the league in August before the first game of the football season.
+ Warren said this past year and the COVID-19 challenges allowed him to grow in his faith and in his belief in people. “So although last year was really, I don’t want to even say traumatic, it was one of the best years of my life because I always have a prayer on New Year’s of going into each year, and my prayer on 2019 was that I wanted my prayer life to grow in 2020. Little did I know that it would grow at the rate that it did, but I can tell you right now that I’m a stronger person.”
+ He is excited that his son has the opportunity to pursue his Master’s degree and play at Michigan State.
+ The other five conference commissioners and Warren frequently communicate with each other. They have weekly calls.
+ When asked if he has any regrets from the decisions he had to make last year, “What really is the essence of regret and what does that really mean? I don’t have any regrets.”
+ “If I had the chance to do it all over last year, I would do, make the same decisions that we made, because one of the things that I’ve always tried to focus on, and you heard me say it today, is making sure we keep our student-athletes at the center of all of our decisions, athletically, academically, regarding college football playoff expansion, relationships with our media partners, relationships with our bowl partners, all of those different things.”
+ Warren said the communication regarding what happened last year wasn’t as clean or perfect as it could have been at times. But he thinks there has been improvement.
[Photo courtesy of CBS Sports]