Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany digs into basketball scheduling, conference tournament

NEW YORK — Nebraska men's basketball coach Tim Miles was the first coach to take a seat at the podium for questions during Big Ten Media Day at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

He followed Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, and led with a joke-that-wasn't-really-a-joke.

'I love following the commissioner,' Miles said. 'You know a guy is highly intelligent when he can say that much and say that little. So, good luck writing all that stuff, folks.'

Delany was asked about three main topics during his nearly 30 minutes taking questions: the 20-game league schedule — which was officially announced Thursday morning — the FBI investigation into recruiting and the location of the Big Ten Tournament.

Miles' joke wasn't entirely accurate, of course. Delany gave a little insight, at least, into why the conference went to the 20-game schedule and why the Big Ten has an eye toward an '80/20 split between Midwestern and Eastern venues' for the yearly conference tournament.

The schedule change is a concerted effort to get more Big Ten teams in the NCAA Tournament. The mandate to play that many league games was almost completely supported by the coaches and athletics directors, Delany said.

'We looked at the place of basketball, not only in the Big Ten but nationally, and really came to a conclusion, which we talked with our coaches, talked with our administrators, that we needed to control the number of quality games,' Delany said. 'We felt we could add quality games in basketball. We felt we could spread out the games a bit, and therefore there would be a couple games in early December we thought we could experiment over time.'

According to the official announcement released Thursday morning, under the new men's format, teams will play seven opponents twice and six teams once (three home, three away) in a given season.

The three in-state rivalries — Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Purdue and Michigan-Michigan State — will be played twice annually, while the new schedule also will include a regional component to increase the frequency of games among teams in similar areas. Over the course of a six-year span, the regional opponents will play 10 times and all other teams will play nine times, in addition to the yearly in-state rivalry games.

Delany was clear that much of the inspiration for this came from college football.

The Big Ten went to a nine-game league schedule, which again prompted the 'quality games' reference from Delany.

Make no mistake, this is about the revenue able to be generated by adding games and spreading them out — the early-December games seen this year because of the conference tournament schedule change are going to be a regular thing. It means more TV ratings and better attendance for a bigger portion of the season. Increasing the quality games in football means more money in the regular season, but also if more teams make the postseason.

It's worked in football and Delany and the coaches believe it will for basketball as well.

'We thought that taking the approach to college basketball, similar to the one we did with college football, would help us lessen compression in January and February with good planning, trying to capture some interest we have with other games,' Delany said. 'We have an ACC challenge now, we have two additional games in December, and albeit we'll lose two non-conference games. But we think in general, people respond more to the conference game than the non-conference.'

SHIFTING TOURNAMENT

This year marks the second straight year the Big Ten Tournament (and its media day) will be held in an east coast city, which obviously is not the traditional footprint of the conference.

Delany said last year the move was about increasing the conference's reach, as well as the alumni base on the east coast. He echoed those sentiments again this year, but conceded that the Midwest was where the heart of the conference lived. The conference tournament returns to Chicago in 2019 and 2021 and Indianapolis in 2020 and 2022, but beyond that still is to be determined.

'We will be returning to the Midwest as noted, but we'll probably try to aspire to maybe an 80/20 split between Midwestern venues and Eastern venues,' Delany said. 'So the great majority will be out in the Midwest, but we'll be back here from time to time to reflect where our schools are located as well as where our alumni live.'

The return to the east coast is included in that to-be-determined status, and Delany said, 'where we would go and when we would go is subject to discussions.'

Delany said there are several options they'd be open to — Philadelphia and Baltimore spring to mind as options still in the Big Ten footprint — but added given the size of and attention brought by New York and Washington, D.C., there's a good chance they'll be sites again in the future.

'We went to D.C. and New York first because we thought those were the two best fits for us in the early stages,' Delany said. 'I wanted to signal as much as anything else is that most of our institutions and most of our fan base is in the Midwest, and we will be there a good bit, but we'll also be living here and trying to bring those two regions together from the standpoint of competition, fan exposure, television exposure, marketing exposure. Because I think it's an incredibly important area for us, and we want to be here. So it's just a signal that we'll be back.'

FBI INVESTIGATION

If Miles' joke about Delany not saying much applied anywhere specifically, it was to the questions about the FBI investigation into college programs and shoe companies paying players to go to certain schools.

The ongoing saga — that cost Rick Pitino his job at Louisville — was, of course, brought up to Delany. He didn't have a whole lot of substance to say about it because he said the Big Ten has 'had no contact with the government.'

Delany said he was 'not shocked about this,' because it's the 'ninth or 10th intersection between college basketball and the F.B.I. going back to 1950.' He said he and other people at the conference know what the media knows because of 'what we read about in the paper.'

'We should all be concerned,' Delany said. 'We don't know what we don't know. Our coaches will coach, and they will do the best they can to get students to class and get them on the right path. But beyond that, the Big Ten does not have any information that you (in the media) otherwise don't have. Speculation probably doesn't benefit anybody at this juncture.'

On a larger level, Delany was vague about what changes could be or need to be made to college basketball. The conference has communicated with coaches, Delany said, because the last several years have seen an increase in engagement from agents, advisers and in Delany's words, 'still some, perhaps gambling.'

Delany supported enforcement and following the rules, which was expected. He didn't offer a specific solution.

'There are obviously a number of things that could be done structurally,' Delany said. 'But different kinds of federal laws apply. There is an NCAA side to this a federal government side, and there is also a value side to this. So I think we have to be very honest, once we know what's going on, to address it the best we can. I don't have a list of five reforms I'd like to see. But I do think it starts with abiding by the rules that we all agree to. You may disagree with the rules and their methods for changing those both at the NCAA, some people go to court. But until rules are changed, you abide by the rules, period.'

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