What will the Big Ten-SEC partnership look to accomplish?
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
The most important thing to know about the burgeoning cooperation of the Big Ten and the SEC, announced late last week, is to not call it an alliance. Let alone The Alliance.
The ill-fated — and roundly mocked — conference alliance of August 2021 was a ham-handed move. But most notably, it was the ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten acting defensively in response to the SEC’s acquisition of Oklahoma and Texas.
This “joint advisory group” announced last week between the Big Ten and the SEC should be viewed more as a bellwether for where college sports are going, and the desire of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti to be proactive. It will be a consultant for the two leagues but won’t have the authority to implement changes.
While further details remain unclear, the Big Ten and SEC are sharing ideas to carve a path forward for college sports, something NCAA leadership has failed to do for a generation, capped by the recent flop of the transformation committee.
This isn’t a breakaway, a point Sankey and Petitti have done great gymnastics to point out. It’s rather an arrow pointing toward progress, ranging from micro issues such as squabbles in the College Football Playoff (governance, access and monetary distribution) to larger-scale issues all the way up to Congress.
Here’s what’s definitive about this new linking: These leagues don’t want Eastern Michigan having a say in what happens at Michigan or Florida International affecting Florida. They don’t, for example, want the Dartmouth basketball team’s unionization effort to impact the Auburn and Iowa football teams’ futures.
The SEC and Big Ten are cool on new NCAA president Charlie Baker’s proposal that calls for a new tier of Division I, which includes $30,000 payments to at least half of a school’s athletes and allows schools to make name, image and likeness deals directly with athletes.
One of the reasons the SEC and Big Ten breaking away isn’t rooted in reality comes from the Supreme Court ruling in 2021 in the NCAA v. Alston case. That ruling stresses time and again that conferences are free to forge individual paths forward.
So where could this SEC-Big Ten partnership show up to forge the future of college sports? The simple answers are lawsuit settlement and revenue share.
Multiple sources told ESPN there’s a lot of chatter that this SEC-Big Ten arm-linking could manifest itself amid the thicket of lawsuits facing the NCAA. Some of the wealthiest conferences want to find a way to settle those suits — particularly the billions in potential exposure of House v. NCAA — and use the settlement structure to create a path forward.
This is not simple, nor is it inevitable, as it’s a complicated play that likely would involve Congress. But as one industry source told ESPN on the building settlement chatter: “Congress doesn’t want to save us. They want to help us. There’s a big difference.”
Sources pointed to the House vs. NCAA case, a class-action lawsuit that has the NCAA facing a multibillion-dollar payout in damages to former athletes if a federal judge decides the association’s old prohibition on NIL deals violated federal antitrust laws. That case is scheduled to go to trial in January 2025, but it could be settled before then.
All of the so-called Power 5 conferences — SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 — are listed as defendants in the House case, which is part of the reason they could be motivated to settle.
This spring appears to be the optimal window for settling.
The NCAA is also facing two other open antitrust complaints and a federal lawsuit that argues that all college athletes should be considered employees of their schools.
There’s no clean path to a settlement, and the circles around those talks are typically tight. But could the Big Ten and SEC spearheading some type of settlement — perhaps in multiple looming cases — mean they agree to pay some of the past damages and figure out an approved structure to revenue share with athletes going forward?
Other leagues could and will follow along. With revenue sharing with athletes seemingly inevitable at some point, would this be a way to instill it?
Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane sports law program, warned of myriad complications but acknowledged a potential path through settlement that could create a framework going forward.
“It’s certainly plausible,” he said. “The realistic part is about the will of the parties. Are the parties willing and able to find a dollar amount to make these cases go away and able to find a structure that they would continue under? It’s certainly plausible.”
Some protection would likely be needed to slow or prevent future lawsuits from coming and challenging the structure. There are various opinions on how and whether that could be achieved, but that’s likely something that would need some type of government intervention. A settlement and some sort of revenue share could help encourage action from federal lawmakers, who have thus far made little tangible progress toward voting on the type of bill the NCAA and its members say they need.
“What they need from Congress, to be clear, is clarity,” said Mark S. Levinstein, senior counsel for Williams & Connolly, who has decades of experience in the sports space. “They need a lot of answers. For example, with respect to labor law, can the athletes unionize? If they unionize and choose the labor laws, is everything the universities did now protected from being challenged under the antitrust laws?”
Levinstein added: “The universities would also need some help with Title IX — if the football players receive a percentage of the university’s revenues, what do they have to do for the women’s rowing athletes? And they will need some clarity on any restrictions they impose on NIL. Can they prevent boosters from paying athletes to come to the university? Do you allow the quarterback to receive millions in NIL deals if they’re actually NIL deals and not payments to get him to enroll at a particular university?”
That’s a lengthy way to say there’s nothing linear here. But the settlement as a bridge to federal help is an idea being discussed, and it’s one the SEC and Big Ten appear set to dig in on once they determine which members — presidents, chancellors and athletic directors — will make up the advisory group.
We’ve seen plenty of committees, commissions and expert panels in college athletics over the years that have led to nothing more than additional committees, commissions and expert panels. What makes this partnership different is that the SEC and Big Ten have the financial muscle, alignment and leadership. But that doesn’t diminish the challenges.
Since Sankey took over at the SEC in 2015, we’ve learned that he’s calculating, the type of leader who measures many times before cutting. Sankey is, in general, a believer in the NCAA and the need for rules and a governing body. But there’s also a boiling point when Georgia State has the same juice as Georgia.
Sankey served as the co-chair of the transformation committee, a group that met for more than a year. It was formed in an effort to reshape Division I rules in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, and there were few tangible results. The time Sankey dedicated to it showed that he believed in some type of healthy NCAA for the future of college sports. But the reality is the transformation committee couldn’t transform anything. So here we are.
Petitti got hired in April of last year, and as he has gotten acclimated to all the issues in college sports, he has made the strategic decision to link with Sankey. Former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and Sankey had a poor relationship, summed up upon Warren’s departure by Sankey saying, “We saw the world differently.”
Alignment among leadership doesn’t mean they can change anything. The most gobsmacking thing about college sports is that, for as popular and profitable as they are at the highest levels, there has long been no one in charge. And those who do qualify as leaders can’t tell you with any confidence what the basic structure surrounding their business will be in five years. Truly, no one has any idea. Everyone is guessing.
With cohesion in the landscape’s two most powerful leagues, they will plow forward. The task is daunting, but luckily the last alliance for power conferences set the bar pretty low.
The Department of Defense restored a story on its website highlighting Jackie Robinson’s military service Wednesday after deleting it as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to purge references to diversity, equity and inclusion through a “digital content refresh.”
While it does not make any references to DEI, the story on Robinson was among a swath scrubbed from government websites in recent days. Before the story on Robinson’s service was restored, the URL had redirected to one that added the letters “dei” in front of “sports-heroes.”
In a statement sent by the Pentagon at 1:24 p.m. ET Wednesday, press secretary John Ullyot cited Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in saying “DEI is dead at the Defense Department” and said the Department of Defense was “pleased by the rapid compliance” that led to the erasing of stories on Robinson, Navajo Code Talkers and Ira Hayes, one of six Marines who raised the American flag at Iwo Jima.
At 2:46 p.m. ET, Ullyot released an updated statement.
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” the updated statement said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever other American who has worn the uniform.
“In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
By 3:09 p.m. ET, the story was restored with its original URL. The Department of Defense declined to answer questions from ESPN as to whether the removal of Robinson’s story was deliberate or mistaken.
Robinson, who served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. One of the most integral figures in American sports history, Robinson won the National League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards during a 10-year career that led to a first-ballot induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The story is part of the Department of Defense’s “Sports Heroes Who Served” series. Other stories, including one on Pee Wee Reese that references his acceptance of Robinson, his teammate, amid racial tensions in his first season, remained on the site during the time Robinson’s story was scrubbed. The Department of Defense also removed a website that celebrated Charles Calvin Rogers, who received the Medal of Honor, but later reestablished the site, according to The Washington Post.
Robinson was drafted into military service in 1942 and eventually joined the 761st Tank Battalion, also known as the Black Panthers. He was court-martialed in July 1944 after he refused an order by a driver to move to the back of an Army bus he had boarded. Robinson was acquitted and coached Army athletics teams until his honorable discharge in November 1944.
Robinson, who died in 1972, remains an ever-present figure in MLB, with his No. 42 permanently retired in 1997. On April 15 every year, the league celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the date of his debut with the Dodgers by having every player in the majors wear his jersey number. Last year, Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, who is 102 years old, attended the April 15 game between the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field.
On Feb. 20, Trump announced plans to build statues of Robinson, boxing icon Muhammad Ali and NBA star Kobe Bryant in the National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture park he proposed during his first administration.
ESPN’s William Weinbaum contributed to this report.
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Adam Rittenberg
COLUMBUS, Ohio — At the NFL scouting combine last month in Indianapolis, Ohio State‘s draft hopefuls talked about Julian Sayin as the likely choice to be the team’s next starting quarterback.
“Julian’s that guy, to be honest with you,” cornerback Denzel Burke told reporters.
“Now it’s his time,” added quarterback Will Howard, the man Sayin and two others will try to replace for the defending national champions.
But Sayin isn’t viewing the starting job as his quite yet. The redshirt freshman is focused on spring practice, which kicked off Monday, and operating in a quarterback room that has been reduced by Howard’s exit and the transfers of Devin Brown (Cal) and Air Noland (South Carolina). Junior Lincoln Kienholz and freshman Tavien St. Clair, a midyear enrollee, were the other two quarterbacks practicing Wednesday.
“You have to block out the noise,” said Sayin, who transferred to Ohio State from Alabama after Nick Saban retired in January 2024. “I’m just focusing on spring practice and just getting better.”
Quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler said Ohio State is “a long way away” from even discussing the closeness of the competition. Fessler, promoted to quarterbacks coach after serving as an offensive analyst last season, is evaluating how the three quarterbacks handle more practice reps, and areas such as consistency and toughness.
He’s confident any of the three can handle being Ohio State’s starting quarterback and the magnitude the job brings, even though none have the experience Howard brought in when he transferred from Kansas State.
“A lot of that was done in the recruitment process,” Fessler said. “I’m confident all three of them could be the guy. Those guys already check that box. So now it’s just a matter of who goes out and wins the job. And again, we are so far away from that point.”
Sayin, ESPN’s No. 9 recruit in the 2024 class, has been praised for a lightning-quick release. He appeared in four games last season, completing 5 of 12 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown.
“We continue to work to build that arm strength, to strengthen his core, to work rotationally, because he is such a rotational thrower, to be able to maximize his movements, both between his lower half and his upper hats, so you can get that ball out with velocity and be successful,” Fessler said. “So he definitely has a quick release, but there’s so much more to playing the position.”
Sayin added about 10 pounds during the offseason and checks in at 203 for spring practice. He’s working to master both on-field skills and the intangible elements, where Howard thrived, saying, “There’s a lot that comes to being a quarterback here besides what you do on the field.”
Kienholz, a three-star recruit, saw the field in 2023, mostly in a Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri, where he completed 6 of 17 pass attempts. He also added weight in the winter, going from around 185 pounds to 207.
“The past few years, I’ve had older guys in front of me and just getting to learn from them on how to be a leader and how to take control,” he said. “Now I’m the oldest guy in the room, so I feel that now, and I kind of feel more confident.”
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day has challenged the quarterbacks to be the hardest workers on the team, and to sustain that ethic.
“I know every single one of them saw that quote by Coach Day, which is pretty awesome,” Fessler said. “It’s so real. It’s who we have to be — the toughest guys in the building, and the hardest-working guys in the building.”
The Department of Defense deleted a story on its website that highlighted Jackie Robinson’s military service, with the original URL redirecting to one that added the letters “dei” in front of “sports-heroes.”
The scrubbing of the page followed a Feb. 27 memo from the Pentagon that called for a “digital content refresh” that would “remove and archive DoD news articles, photos, and videos promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).”
The Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment by ESPN.
“We are aware and looking into it,” an MLB spokesperson said.
Robinson, who served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. One of the most integral figures in American sports history, Robinson won the National League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards during a 10-year career that led to a first-ballot induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The deleted story was part of the Department of Defense’s “Sports Heroes Who Served” series. Other stories, including one on Robinson’s teammate Pee-Wee Reese that references his acceptance of Robinson amid racial tensions in his first season, remain on the site.
Robinson was drafted into military service in 1942 and eventually joined the 761st Tank Battalion, also known as the Black Panthers. He was court-martialed in July 1944 after he refused an order by a driver to move to the back of an Army bus he had boarded. Robinson was acquitted and coached Army athletics teams until his honorable discharge in November 1944.
Robinson, who died in 1972, remains an ever-present figure in MLB, with his No. 42 permanently retired in 1997. On April 15 every year, the league celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the date of his debut with the Dodgers by having every player in the majors wear his jersey number. Last year, Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, who is 102 years old, attended the April 15 game between the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field.
Martin Luther King Jr. said Robinson’s trailblazing efforts in baseball made his own success possible, and Robinson joined King on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.
“The life of Jackie Robinson represents America at its best,” Leonard Coleman, the former National League president and chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, told ESPN. “Removing an icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient from government websites represents America at its worst.”
The removal of Robinson’s story reflects other efforts by the Pentagon to follow a series of executive orders by President Donald Trump to purge DEI from the federal government. A story on Ira Hayes, a Native American who was one of the Marines to raise the American flag at Iwo Jima, was removed with a URL relabeled with “dei,” according to The Washington Post. Other stories about Navajo code talkers, who were lauded for their bravery covertly relaying messages in World War I and World War II, were likewise deleted, according to Axios.
The Department of Defense also removed a website that celebrated Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black general who received the Medal of Honor, but it later reestablished the site, according to the Post.
On Feb. 20, Trump announced plans to build statues of Robinson, boxing icon Muhammad Ali and NBA star Kobe Bryant in the National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture park he proposed during his first administration.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan and William Weinbaum contributed to this report.
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