USA TODAY International Edition
BIG TEN BOSS HOLDS SWAY ROLE OF COMMISSIONER
Job evolves, but Delany’s influence felt
Jim Delany doesn’t CHICAGO play favorites, but he does, apparently, root for players who nearly maul him on the sideline.
The Big Ten Conference’s commissioner laughs as he tells the story — and, because he’s hanging out in the Big Ten Network’s green room, he figures he might as well ask if there’s footage — of the time he got laid out on the sideline by Nebraska wide receiver Stanley Morgan Jr., about eight minutes before the Cornhuskers and Illinois kicked off Oct. 1.
“I got my hands up,” Delany says, miming his self- defense. “And I got right up, but my ears were ringing a bit afterward. Coach ( Mike) Riley came over to check on me. I told him, ‘ Check on No. 8.’ ”
Delany chuckles. He’s serious as he asks — again — for BTN to look for the footage be- cause he’s rather proud of taking that hit. He’s rooted for Morgan ever since; later, while watching Nebraska play Ohio State, he’ll clap when Morgan hauls in a 26- yard catch for a first down in the first quarter. This college football Saturday isn’t necessarily typical for Delany because it keeps him at home in the Chicago area, but it touches on three areas that serve as a good starting point to explain Delany’s unmatched impact on college athletics: a Big Ten football game; the Big Ten Network, his brainchild; and the Big Ten officiating command center.
He starts in Evanston, Ill.,
The Big Ten Network is approaching its 10th anniversary, but league Commissioner Jim Delany remembers the uncertainty and skepticism surrounding its launch.
From those at other networks. From some within in the conference. From plenty across the industry.
Now that most power conferences have followed — the Pac- 12 and Southeastern conferences have their own networks, and the Atlantic Coast Conference’s is set to launch in 2019 — it seems hard to believe that Delany wasn’t sure his brainchild would work. He had to persuade Big Ten member schools’ presidents and athletics directors to try it, knowing it might fail, knowing cable companies didn’t necessarily buy in and knowing full well it could and would offend ESPN.
Once Fox came on board as a partner, Delany thought the network had a shot to survive. But the moment he knew it would not just be viable but succeed was an unexpected one: Appalachian State’s historic upset of then- No. 5 Michigan, on Sept. 1, 2007. It was the first game to be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
“This is a wild thing to say, but the reaction by every other network in the country to the Appalachian State win over Michigan — they all wanted to have a relationship with BTN to get the clips,” Delany told USA TODAY Sports. “That showed me something. … Everybody said, ‘ The Big Ten Network has second- rate games.’ That was the biggest upset in college football history.
“That wasn’t a second- rate game. And we had footage. I was hoping for Michigan to win, but when Michigan lost, it actually created some college football history and made the network relevant.”
Big Ten Network footage of the upset played across the nation. The name of the fledgling network was on anchors’ lips.
“It was BTN on everyone’s highlight show,” Delany said. “It legitimized it.”
The network broadcast a couple of games in which its heavyweights were playing: Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. These were relatively big games. And then by spring, big cable networks were open to discussions.
“By August of 2008, we added Time Warner and Comcast and Charter, and we were fully distributed,” Delany said. “It was a year. It was a very tough year. We spent a lot of time on the trail, in state capitals, in Washington, doing editorial boards. It was an interesting, challenging, difficult time. I credit our institutions — they could have taken the ESPN offer. They could have exercised the heavy, the risk associated with trying to start up.
“We could have failed. ESPN could have been so offended by it that maybe they wouldn’t ( work with us), but we ended up doing a nice deal with them, and we ended up having a cable network and we ended up maintaining a relationship with CBS. The rest is history. It’s been, I think, an artistic success, a financial success and a promotional success.”
“When Michigan lost, it actually created some college football history and made the network relevant.” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, on Appalachian State’s 2007 upset