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Kevin Warren addresses possibility of paying players, potential future membership number for B1G
By Michael Daly
Published:
Kevin Warren addressed the possibility of paying players and adding more schools to the B1G in an interview for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
Warren did an interview with Gumbel that will air on Tuesday. In that interview, Gumbel brought up the idea of paying B1G athletes in the future to Warren. When asked if players could be compensated, Warren said:
“Yes. Yeah,” Warren said.
Here is the exchange between Bryant Gumbel and Kevin Warren during the @RealSportsHBO interview. Full episode airs Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/NAWLvkAfTL
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 19, 2022
The conversation of paying B1G athletes came about after the B1G’s newest media rights deal with FOX, CBS, and NBC was announced this week. While it was unclear how Warren envisioned paying the athletes, Warren did not rule out that possibility. Gumbel asked Warren about the day when football and basketball players will be paid:
“Those are the things we have to resolve. We have to,” Warren said. “So I want to be part of this conversation, and will be part of this conversation of what we can do to make this better.”
In addition to the concept of paying players, Warren was asked if he could see up to 20 programs in the B1G:
“I could. Yeah. I could see perpetual and future growth,” Warren said.
If Warren decided to add more schools, the payment concept will be a topic of conversation for Warren and all of the B1G schools.