Sources: ADs tell commish Big Ten must ‘step up’
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
Big Ten athletic directors met with commissioner Tony Petitti on a video call Thursday without Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel present, and sources told ESPN the call about Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing operation took on a distinctly different tenor than when they met a week ago.
Sources said the athletic directors left the call with the notion that Petitti is taking the Big Ten’s ability to punish Michigan over the allegations more seriously than before.
While no potential punishments were discussed, Petitti acknowledged speaking with the NCAA about its investigation, although he refused to divulge any details of that conversation, sources said. One of the issues Petitti brought up with the athletic directors was that he couldn’t make a decision on Michigan this season based on a whim, that he would need a set of facts to go off.
The conversation with the NCAA hints at his willingness to find out the fact set the NCAA could be working toward. It’s not known whether the NCAA would be willing to share information, but it’s telling that the organization gave the Big Ten an initial heads-up on what was alleged, an action taken in part to protect the integrity of games.
Petitti said on the call he needs to still speak with the Big Ten presidents on the matter, have deeper discussions with officials at Michigan and potentially speak again with the NCAA, per sources. That left no decision imminent, but Big Ten officials stressed a different tone.
While parts of the meeting unfolded similarly to the coaches airing their grievances in a call Wednesday, Petitti did get across a message that he has heard the constituencies loud and clear.
“The athletic directors had a clear message — we believe the conference needs to step up,” a source familiar with the call said.
At the heart of the call, much like the coaches’ call the night before, was the lack of faith in NCAA enforcement to quickly investigate and rule on Michigan’s case, sources said. That has brought to the forefront what the Big Ten has the authority to do in the situation. The conference could initiate its own investigation into potential violations of the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy. While Petitti has the authority to dictate discipline, if it’s beyond a standard level, it must be looked at by an executive committee that could approve, deny or lessen that discipline.
The most powerful message, according to sources familiar with the call, came from Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller. He mentioned the alterations Michigan State needed to undergo in order to prepare for its Oct. 21 game against Michigan after receiving a call Wednesday of that game week about Michigan having Michigan State’s signals.
Haller worried about players potentially getting hurt because Michigan players, in theory, knew where they’d be going on plays.
He also referenced last year, when he said the Big Ten forced Michigan State to suspend numerous players after the tunnel incident in Ann Arbor before the league finished investigating the incident. He pointed out that it was hypocritical that this year, with Michigan under investigation, the league is now waiting for an investigation to unfold.
Haller is not typically one of the more vocal athletic directors on calls, so both his voice and the passion with which he spoke resonated with the athletic directors and Big Ten officials on the call, sources said.
The athletic directors made it clear they were there to support Petitti, who has been in office since April, and help guide him through. While the coaches showed flashes of anger Wednesday, the athletic directors were more measured.
“The athletic directors provided more guidance for a path forward,” said another source familiar with the call. “The coaches spoke from a point of high emotion.”
The NCAA has been investigating Michigan for nearly two weeks, and ESPN sources identified football analyst Connor Stalions as the center of the investigation soon after. Michigan has suspended Stalions, and since then sources have told ESPN that there’s record of Stalions purchasing tickets to the games of 12 of Michigan’s 13 Big Ten opponents over the past three years.
Stalions bought tickets to more than 35 games in at least 17 stadiums over the past three years, sources said. That included two different SEC title games.
The athletic director call came on the heels on the coaches hosting a fiery 90-minute call Wednesday, which a source described as having the tenor of a vast majority of the coaches feeling like “every game they played is tainted.”
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Mark Schlabach
Kentucky quarterback Zach Calzada apologized Friday for sending a video to someone on social media in which he boasted about the amount of NIL money he has received from the Wildcats this season.
The video, which was posted to X by a different person, showed Calzada counting a large stack of $100 bills.
Calzada, who turns 25 on Saturday, said he sent the video to someone who had apparently criticized his play this season.
In the video, Calzada tells the fan, “Hey, what you need to do, Garrett, is your ass needs to stop hatin’ and go get you some money. But since you ain’t got nothing, you go ahead and you can count mine.”
“Let’s count,” Calzada said, as he fanned the $100 bills.
“Don’t lose count, Garrett,” Calzada continued. “Straight hundreds.”
A Kentucky spokesman told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Friday, “Zach has taken responsibility for his actions. He has done the right thing and apologized. Now, it’s time to move forward.”
Calzada, who is playing his seventh season of college football, started the first two games for the Wildcats in 2025. He was ineffective, completing 47.2% of his attempts for 234 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
Calzada injured his throwing shoulder in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 6.
Freshman Cutter Boley took over and has started the past six games, throwing for 1,376 yards with 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
Calzada, from Buford, Georgia, started his career at Texas A&M in 2019. His best season came in 2021, when he replaced injured Haynes King and went 6-4 as the starter. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception in the Aggies’ 41-38 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 9, 2021.
Calzada transferred to Auburn in 2022 but never played in a game after undergoing surgery on his non-throwing shoulder.
He spent the past two seasons at FCS program Incarnate Word, where he was named the Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2024 and Player of the Year last season, when he threw for 3,744 yards with 35 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.
The Wildcats (3-5, 1-5 SEC) host Florida (3-5, 2-3 SEC) on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, the chair of the College Football Playoff board of managers, told ESPN’s Paul Finebaum on Friday that the SEC would prefer to “not have automatic bids” in future iterations of the playoff.
Keenum’s comments came just weeks before the CFP’s Dec. 1 deadline to determine whether there will be a format change for 2026 and beyond.
“I’m not a big fan of automatic qualifiers,” Keenum said on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” which was live from Mississippi State ahead of Saturday’s game against Georgia. “I think the best teams ought to play in our nation’s national tournament to determine who our national champion in college football is going to be and not have automatic bids. That’s the position of the Southeastern Conference — presidents and chancellors, our commissioner, and probably most of the conferences that are part of the CFP.”
If the playoff is going to expand beyond 12 teams, the Big Ten and SEC will have to agree on the format because they were granted the bulk of control over it during the previous contract negotiation. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey haven’t reached consensus on a model. Following SEC spring meetings in May, a 16-team model that would feature the top five conference champions and 11-at-large teams gained support from every FBS conference except the Big Ten, which has been steadfast in its support of automatic qualifiers.
In August, ESPN reported the Big Ten’s interest in an expanded field that could include 24 or 28 teams and would eliminate conference championship games. That model could include seven guaranteed spots for both the Big Ten and SEC; five each for the ACC and Big 12; two bids for leagues outside the Power 4; and two at-large teams.
Multiple sources within the CFP have been skeptical for months that Sankey and Petitti would agree on a format — which means the most likely outcome would be for the current, 12-team format to remain in place for at least another season.
“We’re still negotiating,” Keenum told Finebaum. “We have to make a decision before the end of this month if we’re going to expand to 16 next year. … I’ll be honest, I’m not very optimistic that we’ll get to that, but we’ll keep working on it.”
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