SAN ANTONIO — Dressed in a freshly pressed gray suit and black shoes, Jim Phillips walked through the lobby of the Grand Hyatt at the NCAA convention on Thursday, his black work bag slung over his shoulder and a smile on his face.
He darted between sports administrators, fellow stewards and others, stopping to chat with some and pose for photos with others.
“That should be the next Big Ten commissioner,” said an athletic director, pointing to the ACC commissioner. “They should have hired him three years ago.”
Kevin Warren’s departure from the Big Ten – a long-awaited departure to return to professional sports – generated a buzz at the NCAA convention, one of the largest gatherings of collegiate athletic executives each year. Warren, having just completed his third year as Big Ten commissioner, has accepted the role of CEO and chairman of the Chicago Bears and is expected to start there later this spring.
Will Phillips, above, replace Warren as Big Ten Commissioner?
Matt Cashore/USA TODAY Sports
The news signaled another shift among the College Football Playoff commissioners, the most powerful room in college athletics that has undergone a dramatic change in recent years. The opening in the Big Ten is the most significant since Warren’s predecessor, Jim Delaney, stepped down in 2019.
Along with the position of Commissioner of the SEC, the position is arguably the most important within the rapidly changing industry of collegiate athletics. The news triggered a question from dozens here in downtown San Antonio: Who is next?
“It’s one of the most powerful brands in collegiate sports,” says Craig Thompson, a former Mountain West commissioner. “They are facing CFP expansion, additional membership, a new TV contract. There is some very heavy lifting to be done.
“Somewhat similar to the NCAA president who was just appointed, they need to hire someone who listens and communicates.”
For many of the college sports, the natural choice is Phillips, the Northwest’s longtime athletic director and Chicago native, who many believe finished runner-up to Warren in the quest to replace Delaney. In a brief moment with a reporter on Thursday, Phillips politely declined to comment on the situation.
The hiring decision is in the hands of the 10 Big Ten presidents, a group that has changed dramatically since the search for Delaney. There are new leaders in Big Ten powerhouses Ohio State and Michigan. The man who chaired the group of presidents during the 2019 search, Northwestern’s Morton Schapiro, retired in August.
Will a new board extend an invitation to the 2019 runner-up? Would Phillips leave the ACC after just two years at the helm?
“Nobody would blame him,” says an ACC administrator.
From a league financial standpoint, the Big Ten and the ACC are in very different situations. The Big Ten recently expanded to include USC and UCLA and signed a TV deal expected to be worth over $1 billion a year. ACC is locked into a television contract with ESPN for another 14 years, which pays a fraction of that amount.
By the end of the Big Ten’s TV contract — which is retroactive — its schools must receive annual distribution amounts of at least $80 million. The ACC schools are locked into an agreement that distributes approximately half of that.
“Kevin [Warren] took over a Ferrari,” says an athletic official. “Jim Phillips took over a Ford.”
Phillips is far from the only natural candidate for the show. Gene Smith of Ohio State is another. Or maybe the job goes to a stranger. Three of the last four commissioner hires have come from outside of collegiate athletics: Warren, George Kliavkoff (Pac-12) and Brett Yormark (Big 12).
Some believe the Big Ten should find another outsider, an aggressive type like Yormark. Others believe that a longtime insider like Phillips should get the job.
“You don’t have to gain experience in college athletics to be a commissioner, but there is a context in which college works,” says former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. “If you don’t have that context, you need to surround yourself with people who do.”
Says Thompson: “You bring in someone from the outside, there are some pretty heavy issues to tackle right now.”
College officials describe Warren’s tenure as a roller coaster ride. There were casualties at first. He presided over a league that initially canceled its 2020 fall football season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, before reversing that decision a month later. That, as well as other measures, strained his relationship with Big Ten athletic directors and some sore presidents that fester to this day. For example, conference presidents did not offer him a contract extension when he entered year 4 of his five-year contract.
Warren was named Commissioner of the Big Ten in June 2019.
Robert Goddin/USA TODAY Sports
There is the good too. He led an effort that saw the addition of college bluebloods UCLA and USC, and with backing from the Fox TV powerhouse, he helped create the new multi-billion dollar television deal.
Part of Warren’s legacy as a changemaker in collegiate sports is also profound, as he was the only black commissioner in a Power 5 league. While the Group of 5 commissioners are diverse – Mountain West commissioner Gloria Navarez is a Hispanic woman, Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod is a white woman, and Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill is a black man — Warren will remain one of the most visible black sports executives with the move to the NFL.
“It’s great that he made the impact that he did,” says Gill. “As a black man, you are always looking to have role models. I think it was great too. Its visibility and that has been incredible. He really was in a short period of time, he had a huge impact and I think we will all benefit from that going forward.”
Any new commissioner joins a somewhat fragmented room of CFP commissioners. Animosity still lingers over conference realignments, as well as a painstaking 18-month process to agree on an expanded Playoff model.
The commissioner’s office is gaining more and more power as the NCAA loses it. On the agenda for 2023 are a number of issues: finalizing the Playoff expansion in 2026 and beyond; health and safety concerns; Name; image and likeness rules; the 365-day football calendar; transfer legislation, and perhaps most significantly: dealing with the bevy of lawsuits that further threaten the NCAA.
Making things difficult is the incredible amount of turnover among the group.
“Change is a fact of life, but it’s been pretty extreme,” says AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco.
On a shelf in his home, Thompson keeps a commemorative football he won from the first College Football Playoff game in 2014. The ball is signed by the 11 members of the CFP management committee, the FBS group of commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick, who helped create and enact the first multi-round postseason tournament in college football history.
“Eight of the 11 men who signed the football contract are no longer commissioners,” says Thompson, the Mountain West commissioner who retired effective Jan. 1 after 36 years as conference leader. “Turnover is the nature of business these days.”
With Thompson’s absence, MAC’s Jon Steinbrecher is the longest serving FBS Commissioner. He looks on the bright side.
“Turnover keeps us dynamic,” says Steinbrecher. “It brings new thoughts, new ideas and different points of view.”
And so, when the Big Ten begins a search for Warren’s replacement, many here in San Antonio wonder if the league will call a native son to come home.
“This is Jim Phillips league,” says one conference administrator. “That’s what they should hire.”
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