Q: Here’s something you probably haven’t been asked. When the Big Ten Network was a thing in your head and in the incubation stage, I assume there was probably a time when you said “This is maybe the next big thing, it could be a game changer.” As we sit here today, is there something out there right now?
A: We’re preparing for our next set of major television agreements. We’re scheduled to begin negotiations in the fall of 2015. As we look at that environment, we look at BTN, we’ll look at the games that we’ll have available. We’ll talk to ESPN because they’ve been a long-term partner. It’s a very good market for sports and college sports and in particular college football. College football had a growth trajectory over the last 15 years that’s really separated college football — the NFL’s at the top — from Major League Baseball, college basketball, NBA. We have more conference games, we have the BTN and I think what we try to do is assess the options from the traditional options to BTN2Go. You read all the time about the Apples and Googles and Netflix, so I don’t think there’s any doubt that looking back 20 years we could ever have envisioned a series of involvements by NBC cable, CBS cable, Fox cable, ESPN, the Yankee Network. There’s no doubt as you look forward 20 years that there will be other opportunities. Part of taking advantage of the opportunities is timing and I think our timing is good because we’re on another kind of cusp of technological change. We’re not sure where it’s all going to go, but we’re assessing it, studying it for a couple years. I don’t have an objective other than to explore all the opportunities to try to position us. The athletic directors have been great, we’ve got more conference games, we’ve added Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers in the last three years. I think we’re going to keep traditional model of no games on Thursday or Friday or Wednesday. Saturday, we’re trying to get more games into prime. We’ve got a championship game and we’re trying to upgrade our September schedules a little bit, dropping the teams that don’t have as many scholarships that are actually from another division, increasing the quality of the opponent because we’re going to be competing for one of those four slots in the College Football Playoff. There’s a lot of competition for the discretionary dollar; people can stay home and watch it on TV so if you want people to come to your game, you need to put good, competitive games on. I don’t think there’s any doubt that when we went to a 12th game, the overall quality of our games went down, but the number of home games went up and the number of wins went up. I’d rather have seven or eight teams compete on a national basis rather than 10 that are bowl eligible. It seems to me after a decade of that experience, that’s not necessarily a drive. We’ve seen people go to bowl games and not be there the next year and that certainly doesn’t have the same meaning it did 15 years ago. I don’t know what the next integration is beyond Big Ten Network, except the Big Ten Network is available to go now on a digital basis globally now, anywhere where high-speed internet exists. It’s available in 25 countries in 53 million homes and available in 90 million homes. It is more widely distributed than ESPN was 25 years ago. I think it has more growth. We’re going to get out East, I don’t expect that to be easy, but it we can gauge constructively with distributors, I think there’s a valued proposition there. We’ve got a million people in that corridor between Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan state, Michigan plus Rutgers and Maryland. I think major college sports will come around, largely as a result of the size and scope of these programs coming in there. It’s not going to be immediate, we won’t dominate, but I think we’ll be impactful and relevant in time and I think everybody’s real excited about that. A number of coaches mentioned it’s a great opportunity to recruit out there. We’ve added 3 percent to our geographic footprint and 30 percent to our demographic footprint. Between Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, I think it gives us a footprint that allows us to compete. We picked up two institutions that are flagship, public AAU members in contiguous states, Penn State’s the bridge. I’m not sure this would be as easy or as smooth as it is, but we’ve bene with Penn State for 20 years now and they face east into New York and D.C. and I think the Penn State-Maryland, Penn State-Rutgers, Penn State-Ohio State and those rivalries speak for themselves. I think it’s areal opportunity there to get a seamless growth. Everyone’s in two regions now. The ACC is in the Massachusetts and New York and Indiana and Pennsylvania. We’re in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, New York/New Jersey, D.C., so we’ve got that corridor positioned in a unique way. The SEC is in Texas and Missouri and the Pac-12 is in Colorado and Utah, not exactly Pacific Coast states. The paradigm has shifted, we’ve adjusted and I think we’re positioned to continue to be successful. We’ve got to win more, there’s no doubt about it, the SEC has dominated the football landscape. We’re not going to change who we play and where we play and when we play. Whether it’s a ACC basketball challenge, or a Rose Bowl challenge, or an SEC challenge, I do believe that we’ve got the resources and the coaches and tradition, we’re going to break through. Whether it happens this year or next year, I don’t know, but we’re committed to winning and competing for championships.
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2013-08-10/qa-jim-delany.html
A: We’re preparing for our next set of major television agreements. We’re scheduled to begin negotiations in the fall of 2015. As we look at that environment, we look at BTN, we’ll look at the games that we’ll have available. We’ll talk to ESPN because they’ve been a long-term partner. It’s a very good market for sports and college sports and in particular college football. College football had a growth trajectory over the last 15 years that’s really separated college football — the NFL’s at the top — from Major League Baseball, college basketball, NBA. We have more conference games, we have the BTN and I think what we try to do is assess the options from the traditional options to BTN2Go. You read all the time about the Apples and Googles and Netflix, so I don’t think there’s any doubt that looking back 20 years we could ever have envisioned a series of involvements by NBC cable, CBS cable, Fox cable, ESPN, the Yankee Network. There’s no doubt as you look forward 20 years that there will be other opportunities. Part of taking advantage of the opportunities is timing and I think our timing is good because we’re on another kind of cusp of technological change. We’re not sure where it’s all going to go, but we’re assessing it, studying it for a couple years. I don’t have an objective other than to explore all the opportunities to try to position us. The athletic directors have been great, we’ve got more conference games, we’ve added Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers in the last three years. I think we’re going to keep traditional model of no games on Thursday or Friday or Wednesday. Saturday, we’re trying to get more games into prime. We’ve got a championship game and we’re trying to upgrade our September schedules a little bit, dropping the teams that don’t have as many scholarships that are actually from another division, increasing the quality of the opponent because we’re going to be competing for one of those four slots in the College Football Playoff. There’s a lot of competition for the discretionary dollar; people can stay home and watch it on TV so if you want people to come to your game, you need to put good, competitive games on. I don’t think there’s any doubt that when we went to a 12th game, the overall quality of our games went down, but the number of home games went up and the number of wins went up. I’d rather have seven or eight teams compete on a national basis rather than 10 that are bowl eligible. It seems to me after a decade of that experience, that’s not necessarily a drive. We’ve seen people go to bowl games and not be there the next year and that certainly doesn’t have the same meaning it did 15 years ago. I don’t know what the next integration is beyond Big Ten Network, except the Big Ten Network is available to go now on a digital basis globally now, anywhere where high-speed internet exists. It’s available in 25 countries in 53 million homes and available in 90 million homes. It is more widely distributed than ESPN was 25 years ago. I think it has more growth. We’re going to get out East, I don’t expect that to be easy, but it we can gauge constructively with distributors, I think there’s a valued proposition there. We’ve got a million people in that corridor between Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan state, Michigan plus Rutgers and Maryland. I think major college sports will come around, largely as a result of the size and scope of these programs coming in there. It’s not going to be immediate, we won’t dominate, but I think we’ll be impactful and relevant in time and I think everybody’s real excited about that. A number of coaches mentioned it’s a great opportunity to recruit out there. We’ve added 3 percent to our geographic footprint and 30 percent to our demographic footprint. Between Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, I think it gives us a footprint that allows us to compete. We picked up two institutions that are flagship, public AAU members in contiguous states, Penn State’s the bridge. I’m not sure this would be as easy or as smooth as it is, but we’ve bene with Penn State for 20 years now and they face east into New York and D.C. and I think the Penn State-Maryland, Penn State-Rutgers, Penn State-Ohio State and those rivalries speak for themselves. I think it’s areal opportunity there to get a seamless growth. Everyone’s in two regions now. The ACC is in the Massachusetts and New York and Indiana and Pennsylvania. We’re in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, New York/New Jersey, D.C., so we’ve got that corridor positioned in a unique way. The SEC is in Texas and Missouri and the Pac-12 is in Colorado and Utah, not exactly Pacific Coast states. The paradigm has shifted, we’ve adjusted and I think we’re positioned to continue to be successful. We’ve got to win more, there’s no doubt about it, the SEC has dominated the football landscape. We’re not going to change who we play and where we play and when we play. Whether it’s a ACC basketball challenge, or a Rose Bowl challenge, or an SEC challenge, I do believe that we’ve got the resources and the coaches and tradition, we’re going to break through. Whether it happens this year or next year, I don’t know, but we’re committed to winning and competing for championships.
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2013-08-10/qa-jim-delany.html
