Introduced Tuesday as the new commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, Kevin Warren stated the following during a news conference at league offices in Rosemont, Ill.:
“This is No. 1 on my list. So this is not about a job. This is really about an opportunity for a legacy. This is what I call one of those legacy opportunities. That’s why I’m humbled and I’m honored and I’m just excited to go to work.”
As Jim Delany’s successor, the former chief operating officer of the Minnesota Vikings becomes the first black commissioner of one of college sports’ Power 5 conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference, Pac-12, Southeastern Conference).
“When you have an iconic leader like Jim Delany, the worst thing you can do is to go and try to tear down what he’s built and what this staff has built,” Warren said of the man responsible for creating the Big Ten Network while taking the league to new heights with an increase to 14 schools during a reign that lasted more than 20 years and will officially end Jan. 1, 2020. “So I think one of the things that I will focus on is making sure that I take the time and energy to be a great listener and a great observer — to take what he’s built, to take what our presidents and chancellors have built, to take what this staff has built, to take what our student-athletes have built – to really understand that, and then to build on top of that.”
Warren, 55, will officially begin his job on Sept. 16 to begin the transition, and said, “There are only a couple places that I would ever consider spending the next major portion of my life and my career.”
Presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten finalized Warren’s hiring on Sunday at their annual meeting.
“It’s a historic moment for collegiate sports,” Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill told USA Today. “We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion in our enterprise. This is another step forward in that.”
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel also strongly supported the hire, telling the Detroit Free Press in a statement: “I was excited to hear yesterday that Kevin Warren was selected as the next Commissioner of the Big Ten. I have known Kevin for a couple of decades. Great person, really smart, and excellent leader. I am excited about working with him in his new role.”
Among Warren’s previous jobs, he took his law degree to work at a firm with Mike Slive, the late SEC commissioner, and was known for representing universities facing NCAA violations. He began his NFL career in 1997 under then-St. Louis Rams coach Dick Vermeil.
On Tuesday, Warren discussed Slive, who died in 2018, and got emotional remembering a man he considers “a second father.”
“Mike Slive would tell me, early on, these commissioner jobs were really an extension of athletics,” Warren said. “Now they’re a multi-international conglomerate. Yes, still at its core, the student-athlete is and has to be at the core of it. That’s the focus, but now there’s so many other things associated with it: television and digital issues, and data analytics, and the game-day experience, and the fan experience and sponsors, and rules and regulations, and the future, and the health and wellness, and the constituents and partners.
“All these different things come together. This is a different time.”
While spending most of the last two decades in NFL front offices, including with the Rams (1997-2001, football legal counsel, vice president of football administration) and the Detroit Lions (2001-03, senior vice president of business operations and general counsel) before beginning a 15-year tenure with the Vikings, Warren is excited about this latest opportunity as he succeeds Delany.
“Everyone is different,” Warren said. “I’m sure I’ll have a different style, but I know that there are certain innate and fundamental characteristics that we will be the same on. And that’s the love of this conference, the respect for the presidents and chancellors, the respect for the student-athletes and the athletic administration, the love for our fans. I think all those attributes that Jim has, of being a hard worker and working together and collaborating as a visionary, I have a lot of those same attributes.”