July 31, 2007

Football Kickoff
The Big Ten football kickoff luncheon is being held today (Wednesday), signaling the start of the football season. There is great excitement surrounding Big Ten football this season, as evidenced by the fact that the luncheon sold out earlier this year than ever before. Our football student-athletes arrive this weekend, and will hold a number of practices here on campus before heading to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Aug. 10. The NCAA has made a number of changes regarding football training camp in recent years in an attempt to make camp safer for student-athletes. Teams must provide an acclimation period at the beginning of camp and cannot have back-to-back, two-a-day practices. Still, though, training camp is the most demanding part of the season for our student-athletes, and presents a great opportunity for our student-athletes to improve individually and for the team to come together. I think we have a chance to have a very good season this year. For the first time in 61 years, we will have seven home games. We open the season with three straight home games, and have a chance to get off to a great start and build confidence. The team's work over the next few weeks in camp will lay the foundation for the season.

Big Ten Network
A big reason for the excitement about Big Ten football is the upcoming start of the Big Ten Network. The Big Ten Network will officially launch in approximately one month. We have spent much time working and planning for the establishment and start of the Network. It will be exciting when the Network is actually broadcasting. The Network, which has hired approximately half of its expected 85 employees, just recently moved into its studio space in Chicago -- on Chicago Avenue on the river. The Network will have a strong Northwestern presence, as a number of the key hires have ties to Northwestern. Dave Resvine, Class of 1987 and long-time ESPN broadcaster, will be the host of the Network's nightly studio show. Also, Chris Martin, from our 1995 Rose Bowl team, will be the color commentator on one of the Network's lead football broadcast teams. Our first three football games will all be broadcast on the Network, and our men's and women's soccer, volleyball and field hockey teams will all have games broadcast on the Network this fall. The big question facing the Network is where the local cable companies will place the Network. The Network has reached agreements with 75 smaller cable companies, but has so far been unable to reach agreements with the larger cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner, RCN). The Network wants to be part of the cable companies' basic packages, while the cable companies want to place the Network on a digital sports tier. There has been much written recently about these negotiations. Given what is at stake for both sides, I don't think any agreements with the major cable companies will be reached until we get closer to the launch date, but I am hopeful that agreements will be reached.

Expansion
The Big Ten has been at 11 members since Penn State was added in 1994. The conference has such a strong and great reputation, and must be careful that expansion doesn't hurt the conference's reputation. There were serious discussions with Notre Dame in the late 1990s, but eventually these fell apart because of Notre Dame's desire to remain independent in football and retain its TV contract for football. There's an old saying about expansion, "If there was a perfect school for a conference to add, they would probably already be in the conference." As times change, though, conferences have to reassess the possibility of expansion. With the creation of the Big Ten Network, it makes sense for the conference to reconsider the possibility of expansion. Under a traditional TV contract, expansion doesn't make financial sense, because the conference would have to provide an additional share of the TV revenue to the new school. With the Big Ten Network, though, the analysis is considerably different. If a new school adds a new market (or markets) and cable subscribers to the Network, this could provide an opportunity to grow and develop the Network. The conference will be studying expansion carefully in the coming months, as well as ancillary issues related to football scheduling (i.e., number of conference games, whether to create two divisions and play a championship game).