ESPN insider calls out Tony Petitti for silence on major issues facing college sports

With so many changes happening of late in the world of college sports, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has been strangely silent. While other commissioners such as Greg Sankey of the SEC or Brett Yormark of the Big 12 have been vocal about their stances, we haven’t heard a lot from Pettiti.

For ESPN senior writer Dan Wetzel, there isn’t a clear answer to why Petitti has been so tight-lipped. But he does believe that the commissioner would benefit from at least attempting to keep an open line of communication with fans, if not the media.

“I don’t know why Tony Petitti doesn’t talk,” he said. Wednesday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “You’d have to ask the Big Ten that or Tony Petitti if you do get him to talk. Again, I don’t know what he’s thinking or what he’s planning. This isn’t a negative. I just think that this is not a traditional business. I don’t even know that it’s the NFL. You hear pretty regularly from Roger Goodell. Look, you take the NFL or the NBA, I feel real confident that the Green Bay Packers are always going to be in it. I feel pretty good that whatever we’re coming up with in the NFL or the NBA is gonna include all the team and there’ll still be a draft. In college sports, we have no such guarantees.

“No one knows what’s going on. So I think when you’re one of the two most powerful people and you’re running a league that, more than anyone with their conference realignment, has destabilized the entire sport, by both going east and destabilizing the ACC and going west and eliminating the Pac-12, you should be talking to the media. You should be talking to the fans. It doesn’t have to be media, you could get on there and do different ways to communicate with the fans. I do think that’s important.”

The silence from Petitti has continued even after a recent House v. NCAA settlement was passed. That will bring sweeping changes such as universities being allowed to directly pay athletes now and roster limits for all sports.

But there are still a number of issues to tackle facing NIL, the transfer portal and the College Football Playoff format to name a few. Tony Petitti might not always be of the most popular opinion on these issues, but then again neither is anyone. Wetzel believes that being vocal about it can help calm down some of the unrest from fans.

“It’s not all the time that everyone listens,” he said. “They don’t sit there and say, ‘I really agree with everything Greg Sankey says or Jim Phillips of the ACC says or Yormark of the Big 12.’ Sometimes you disagree. But at least they’re out there talking to the people.

“Because this isn’t just a business. This is really a huge part of so many lives. The idea of college athletics being altered or not mattering or this or that. It’s an emotional connection that drives this. The passion that drive this is beyond a typical business.”