1:28: My view, very candidly and Ive said this to you before and Im not certain if [athletic director] Gene [Smith] shares this, we havent really talked about this but I think were moving precipitously toward about three or four superconferences of about 16 to 20 teams. And the possibility of them bolting from the NCAA is not unlikely.
3:07: And I want to make it very clear, we have never invited Notre Dame to join the Big Ten. And the reason is the fact that they first of all theyre not very good partners. Ill just say that. I negotiated with them during my first term and the fathers are holy on Sunday and theyre holy hell on the rest of the week. You just cant trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or Friday. Literally, I can say that.
4:56: [The addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten] gives us 40 to 50 million more viewers, makes the BTN worth more money than God. I did say that. Its a very powerful instrument for us.
6:05: The blocking strategy is that we simply have now put the ACC in an almost no-win position. So who do they immediately go to? Louisville. They may think about Cincinnati. They may think about Connecticut. But theyve lost their foothold in that middle part of the area, in that middle part of the Atlantic coast.
9:14: I think the Big Ten needs to be predatory and positive rather than waiting for other people to take away from them. Very candidly, I think we made a mistake. Because thought about adding Missouri and Kansas at the time. There was not a great deal of enthusiasm about that. I think we should have done that at the time. So we would have had Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and then moved into that other area. I think, by the way, that that can still happen.
9:42: I also think this. This is a high possibility. If the ACC continues to struggle, and Florida State goes off to the SEC or something like that, and Clemson moves in a different direction, all of a sudden Virginia and Duke, which are very similar institutions to and North Carolina which are very similar institutions to the Big Ten, there is a real possibility that we may end up having that kind of T which goes south. And I could see them joining us. And I could see them having a real interest in joining us.
11:03: You know Penn State just abhors Pitt. It would be the same way. Even though we love Cincinnati as a city, we want it to be an Ohio State city. Theyd have to take Gene out and shoot him to let Cincinnati into the Big Ten. There are some things that we just would not to. And thats the way that Penn State also feels about Pitt.
11:49: I would see potentially Missouri and Kansas. By the way it goes without saying this all has to be speculation that remains right here. And I could also see a T that goes south all according to what happens with the ACC, but we need to be ready to move.
14:30: Someone was saying to me, well, you know, Bret Bielema leaving
that was a blessing for Wisconsin and they knew it. Because he was under tremendous pressure. They didnt like him. Barry Alvarez thought he was a thug. And he left just ahead of the sheriff.
18:44: The smaller schools in the Divisions II and III, which have substantial power but no power in terms of television draw or anything else, they have increasingly become rigid about the way that we change some of the rules in support of the revenue-generating institutions. And eventually thats gonna drive us all into a new kind of a configuration. And thats where I think were going.
19:52: I think the presidents of the institutions are very clear that their number one criteria is to make sure that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity. So you wont see us adding Louisville
or the University of Kentucky.
23:44: The NCAA is a cacophony and its not a chorus. Until we can get a chorus, were not going to be able to deal with this arms race in the right way I think.
24:54: Well you tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write then they can figure out what were doing. Ive been down there. I was the chairman of the Southeastern Conference for two years. Ill tell you something. Its shameful. It really is.
