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The top two teams in the Big Ten have qualified for this weekend’s college football playoffs, marking the first time the league has sent two teams to a four-team playoff iteration.
But keep in mind Ohio State and Michigan are gearing up for games against Georgia and TCU on Saturday. ESPN’s Pete Thamel We shared some news that likely caught Big Ten fans off guard: The Commissioner Kevin Warren It looks like he’s on the shortlist for the Chicago Bears’ next president and CEO.
Twitter isn’t a particularly friendly place these days. Warren has done a really tough job leading the conference in unpredictable times, including lockdowns due to CoVID and the reorganization of conferences across the country. He has endured some pretty harsh criticism for how the league has dealt with the pandemic, but he also orchestrated a major acquisition with USC and UCLA joining the conference, spearheading a media rights deal worth more than $7 billion. stood up
Regardless of what you think of his performance, I started thinking about who would be a viable option to replace him.
ACC Commissioner James Phillips Warren was a coveted target when he was hired for the job a few years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if they show interest.
That being said, I immediately thought of another possibility. Gene Smith, Athletic Director of Ohio.
This is my opinion, and I don’t know if Gene would be interested in the job, but it makes sense for many reasons.
College athletics is changing at a staggering pace, and perhaps no one understands it better than Smith. Leaving Ohio State may allow him to take a step back and tackle the bigger challenges facing college athletics. Currently, he is responsible for managing the athletics programs of his 30 national teams. While soccer “drives the bus” financially for the Buckeyes, he runs sports divisions with world-class amateur athletes in many Olympic sports, and they too deserve his time and attention.
Smith is certainly at the end of his career, but he is an exceptional leader and I think this is a new challenge to inspire him. He’s one of the most respected figures in college track and field (and may be the most powerful person in the country, other than the Power 5 Commissioner). If he becomes the oldest and richest congress commissioner in the country, he may be able to better assert the name, image and likeness law changes he wants and the future of collegiate athletics as a whole. There is no other athletic director in the country who has experience on such a big stage. He’s a great guy and the meeting would be lucky to have him.
Who knows if Kevin Warren will leave. As of this writing, he has not issued any public comment on Tamer’s report. We don’t know exactly what his salary is, but we do know that Warren is well paid. It must offer him a change of style (and not just make the financial terms attractive).
But even if that job opens up, I don’t think the Big Ten will find a better candidate than Gene Smith unless the league is looking for someone who will eventually become Commissioner for 20 years.
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