Big Ten Commission Tony Petitti Discusses Northwestern, ‘True NIL,’ & Realignment

The first day of Big Ten Media Days is in the books, and the conference welcomed a new commissioner in Tony Petitti. Here are some of the highlights from his time at the central podium on Wednesday:

All Eyes on Northwestern

The trending topic for the last several weeks has been the hazing and program culture at Northwestern that saw long-time coach Pat Fitzgerald lose his job. Petitti was asked about the Big Ten doing their investigation into the Wildcats’ athletic department as well as looking at other schools in the Big Ten.

“With the process right now, Northwestern’s launched two investigations. The process in the conference on these matters is led by the institution. There’s no investigation being launched by the conference. We’ll wait to see the results of those investigations and will have further comments at that time,” Petitti said.

The incidents at Northwestern have also caught the attention of the rest of the Big Ten.

“I think when something like this happens, I think our member institutions are going to take it upon themselves to do that, right? The obvious result would be to look at practices to make sure that’s what happening on campus meets the standards we expect to provide a safe and healthy environment for student-athletes. I think that’s where that work needs to take place.

“I know in talking to some of our directors and coaches that they understand that,” Petitti added.

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What is “True NIL?"

Petitti used the term “true NIL” when discussing the hot-button issue of players’ name, image, and likeness, saying that the current system is pay-for-play and that Congress must solve the problem.

“I spent an enormous amount of time speaking to coaches, student-athletes, A.D.s, my A5 partners about NIL. I learned a lot (about) what NIL is and what NIL is not,” the commissioner said.

“What it is, is a great mechanism for student-athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness through real marketing opportunities. We as a conference not only support but celebrate a student-athlete’s ability to generate unlimited benefits from true NIL.”

NIL has become more and more a pay-for-play system and is influencing recruitment of players to schools.

“It is important to say that much of what is happening now under the guise of NIL is not true NIL but rather a move to a pay-for-play system that is driving recruitment and the transfer portal. This system operates away from and without institutional control, nor does it comply with Title IX,” Petitti continued.

Focusing on UCLA and USC Before Further Expansion

Conference expansion has been at the forefront of every college football conference media day this year, and the Big Ten was no different. Petitti was adamant that his focus is on welcoming USC and UCLA and working on making their transition as smooth as possible.

“All the direction I’m getting from leadership, our presidents and chancellors, athletic directors, is to focus on UCLA and USC. I’m proud of the scheduling format we created in football. I think it touches on all the right things.” Petitti said. “We have significant work to do on scheduling of other sports, especially our Olympic sports, to come up with the best solutions. I believe we have a good plan in motion. I think we’ll learn from it. Like anything, there will be tweaks and changes. Overall that’s really where we are. I’m not getting direction to do anything else other than that in terms of just what the conference looks like right now.”

Big Ten Media Days continues on Thursday.