clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Big Ten at Ten 7.20.2012: All Hail Delany Caesar!

By Mike Jones
Both men on this stage may or may not be criminally insane.
Both men on this stage may or may not be criminally insane.

As Big Ten fans we have a certain sense of pride that our commissioner, James E. Delany, has huge balls. We're talking massive, gorilla, King Kong elephantiasis balls. You might remember the time when he was negotiating a contract extension with the World Wide Leader in sports. ESPN, thinking Jim was to be toyed with, lowballed him and said: Take it or leave it. If you don't take our offer, you are rolling the dice.

Jim's response?

Consider them rolled.

I now present to you a visual representation of the meeting with Jim Delany being played by Gerard Butler and ESPN played by Peter Mensah.

But yesterday...yesterday things got a little weird. Per The Chronicle of Higher Education, a proposal was submitted to Big Ten higher-ups that would (among other things) give Jim Delany the power to fire coaches. To quote:

The proposal, part of a plan being circulated among Big Ten leaders, would give James E. Delany, who has overseen the league since 1989, and a powerful committee of conference presidents the ability to penalize individual members of an institution, should their actions significantly harm the league’s reputation.

The sanctions, spelled out in a document obtained by The Chronicle, could include financial penalties, suspension, or termination of employment.

This proposal has been highly publicized since it became public and one should note that it says "and a powerful committee of conference presidents..." Thus, it wouldn't just be Delany. It would be Delany and this "powerful committee." On the other hand I think it's clear that the committee would bow to Delany's wishes. Why? Because who in the Big Ten doesn't bow to Jim Delany's wishes?

Obviously, this proposal was brought on by the unfortunate series of events occurring at Penn State. Because something like the Penn State scandal has never occurred in the history of intercollegiate athletics, it looks like Delany is trying to take matters into his own hands by turning the Big Ten into a dictatorship. History will tell you that things get done a lot faster when one man has the power to make all of the decisions.

Today it was announced that absolutely no one in the Big Ten was taking this proposal seriously. I think we all saw that coming. To quote the Big Ten via ESPN's B1G Blog:

There have been several reports, stemming from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, that reference certain emergency powers described in a draft document entitled Standards and Procedures For Safeguarding Institutional Control of Intercollegiate Athletics that has been under review by the Big Ten’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors. The draft obtained by the Chronicle was an early draft put together by the Big Ten staff in order to surface all of the options available. The option of giving emergency powers to the Commissioner to fire personnel is not under consideration by the Presidents and Chancellors.

Despite there being no possibility of this happening what are your thoughts? This proposal is unprecedented (to my knowledge) and likely the first in NCAA history. Then again, we've never seen anything like the Penn State scandal in NCAA history. People talk about the death penalty, rules, regulations, precedent and claim the bylaws don't apply. I'd just like to point out that rules, regulations and bylaws can be changed. If you took the NCAA bylaws and applied them to what's going on at Penn State I might agree and say "There's not much you can do here." But this is different. And if you honestly believe the NCAA won't amend or add a new subsection to address the Penn State scandal you could be in for a rude awakening. Links after the jump.

Team Links:

Conference Links:

Finally, Y U OPEN YOUR MOUTH GARY PINKEL?