It’s been a busy summer for the Big Ten Conference — the league announced it will be adding USC and UCLA in 2024, and earlier this week it laid out the details for its new seven-year media rights deal that will bring it a reported $7 billion-plus in revenue.
Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren sees the Big Ten staying at the forefront of key topics impacting college athletics in the future as well.
Warren addressed a pair of those key topics during an appearance on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”
HBO released a transcript of a portion of the show in which Warren is asked about the possibility of paying players in the future, as well as whether the league could expand even further, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd.
Warren answered affirmatively that yes, he could foresee a day when college athletes are paid.
“One of the things I’m excited about is being able to have honest dialogue with our student-athletes,” Warren told Gumbel. “Have there been little changes that have been made? Yes. But we need to really sit down and start getting these issues on the table and state making some decisions.”
Gumbel asked if Warren could specifically foresee a time when Big Ten athletes in the revenue-producing sports like football and basketball are paid, and the commissioner stressed the importance of having those conversations.
“Those are the things that we have to resolve. We have to,” he said, “so I want to be part of this conversation of what we can do to make this better.”
Gumbel then approached the subject of conference realignment, specifically asking if Warren could foresee the Big Ten expanding to 20 teams — it will be at 16 when USC and UCLA join the conference in two years.
“I could. Yeah,” Warren said. “I could see perpetual and future growth.”
On Thursday when the Big Ten announced its new media rights deal, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported there’s an escalator clause in the agreement that could make the deal increase to nearly $10 billion if the conference expands further.
McMurphy also reported that a source indicated the league “is not done” expanding, and that the target schools include independent Notre Dame and Pac-12 programs Oregon, Washington, Stanford and California.
The full episode of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” featuring Warren will air next Tuesday at 9 p.m. MDT on HBO.