Big Ten keeps to its roots in face of changes

The Big Ten Conference lives by the phrase ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ more than any other conference in America.

It’s the oldest Division I college athletic conference. Only two universities, Penn State and University of Nebraska, have been added to the conference in the last 57 years, and nine of the Big Ten’s 12 schools joined the conference before World War I.
But in the last four years, the Big Ten made two major changes to keep up with the times.

The Big Ten Network was launched in 2007 and become the first internationally distributed network devoted to a single conference. Nebraska joined the conference, causing the Big Ten to split into the Leaders and Legends divisions and ultimately allowing for a football conference championship game.

“Didn’t Darwin say something like, ‘It’s not the strongest that survives, it’s the most adaptable that survives’?” IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said. “To preserve our great traditions, we’ve had to keep up with the times. We’ve adapted to the times with the Big Ten Network. We’ve adapted to the times with expansion ­— but not crazy expansion or big-in-numbers expansion. Rather, the right expansion.”

The theme across the board of the last college football off-season seemed to be expansion and realignment. Powerhouses like Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas were all rumored to be searching for a new conference to call home, which some viewed as the possible end of the Big 12.

Though all three schools stayed put, the Big 12 saw Colorado, Nebraska and Texas A&M leave for other Bowl Championship Series conferences.

Also, the Pac-12 Conference, formerly known as the Pac-10, changed its name because of its expansion to 12 teams. The expansion also allowed for a Pac-12 conference championship game.

With other conferences generating millions of dollars in revenue from football conference championship games, Big Ten expansion was deemed necessary by the heads of the conference. But the university selection process was one that couldn’t afford to be rushed, Glass said.

“I wouldn’t describe it as urgency,” Glass said. “Part of the goal was obviously to have a championship game. But it wouldn’t be worth it if that’s all you got.”

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany announced June 2010 that Nebraska would become the Big Ten’s 12th team at the start of the 2011-12 season. With Nebraska’s addition, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern joined the Leaders division while Illinois, IU, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin joined the Legends division.

Glass said the Legends and Leaders divisions will only heighten some of the Big Ten’s historic rivalries.

“I think the realignment is great,” Glass said. “I think it’ll create a lot of interest. I think we’ll pay more attention and get more excited about a divisional game as opposed to a more general game. In some ways, there’ll be more to play for.”

The division of Legends and Leaders also means, for the first time in the Big Ten’s 115-year history, a football conference championship game will be played this season on Dec. 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Adding a conference championship game is something Glass said will spice up the Big Ten’s bland period of the year.

“We tend to go quiet as a conference at Thanksgiving and not perk up again until our guys show up in bowl games, and that’s not good for the conference,” Glass said. “I think it’ll give us a higher profile in the national football world in addition to generating significant revenue.”

Besides generating revenue in football, the Big Ten also found a consistent way to increasingly nationalize the conference in a way that’s financially beneficial.

The introduction of the Big Ten Network was unlike anything in college sports at the time. After ongoing disputes with major cable companies, the Big Ten Network eventually worked out a deal to become available on cable in 19 of the countries’ top 20 media markets, according to the Big Ten official website.

In addition to providing the conference with an international audience, the Big Ten Network annually puts an estimated $17 million into the pockets of every Big Ten school. This frees up room to upgrade facilities and pay coaches higher salaries, which ultimately helps recruiting. It’s a paycheck that has Big Ten athletics directors like Glass gushing.

“The fact of the matter is the Big Ten Network is the best thing since canned soup,” Glass said. “When you combine the financial benefits with the exposure benefits and then add in the fact that Indiana makes out like a bandit on this thing, I’d say it’s been great for the Big Ten and especially great for Indiana University.”

For a conference that prides itself on tradition, the Big Ten adapted well to the commercialization of college athletics. The conference doors didn’t swing open with every whiff of BCS realignment. But on the rare occasion those doors were open, only a top-notch university was allowed in.

The Big Ten Network proved to be a financial jackpot that allowed the conference to gain national notoriety. Tradition is still at the core of Big Ten roots, but recent actions showed that a little change can bring in a lot of ... well, change.