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Big Ten, SEC set up joint advisory group to tackle mounting issues in college football
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Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey are setting up a joint advisory group of university presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors to explore “common-sense solution(s)” to developing issues within college football.
In a release, the two leagues said the advisory group will have no authority to act independently and will only serve as a consulting body. The group’s composition, charter and timetable, and specific issues it will focus on have yet to be determined. But the goal is clear.
In the absence of a college football commissioner, the two most powerful leagues in college athletics are stepping in to try and solve the issues the NCAA has been incapable of answering.
“The Big Ten and the SEC have substantial investment in the NCAA and there is no question that the voices of our two conferences are integral to governance and other reform efforts,” Petitti said in a statement. “We recognize the similarity in our circumstances, as well as the urgency to address the common challenges we face.”
According to extensive reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the joint advisory board will be tasked with finding solutions to ongoing antitrust lawsuits; disagreements over the NCAA’s new governance model; and athlete movement and NIL rights that have led to inducements, tampering charges, and hotly-contested NCAA intervention.
Both Sankey and Petitti told Yahoo Sports the creation of this advisory board does not signal a move to break away from the NCAA.
“From our perspective, we have a lot that is linked to the NCAA,” Sankey told Yahoo Sports. “We want to see a healthy national organization. I think that’s very much a need. … We’re going to have conversations about what might a path forward mean for college sports.”
Added Petitti: “You can see the pace that others are getting involved in college athletics is increasing. So the pace of solutions to the problems being identified has to increase.”
Sankey has been outspoken about the lack of Power conference representation on the NCAA D1 council — the body that makes decisions for his league and others. That council features just six representatives from the remaining Power Four among its 40 members.
Solutions to growing problems at the top of college football have been slow-rolled.
And coaches are starting to flee for the NFL. Jim Harbaugh left Michigan after a national championship season to take the head coaching job with the Los Angeles Chargers. Boston College’s Jeff Hafley left his post to be a coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Chip Kelly reportedly wants to make a similar move from UCLA to the NFL.
Sankey told Yahoo Sports the joint enterprise aims to find “a common-sense solution” that will lead to a “much brighter horizon” in college athletics.
“We thought in the Big Ten that coming together this way to share ideas was the fastest and best way to increase the pace of what we are doing,” Petitti said.
More on the development can be found here.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.