An Open Letter to Jim Delany

Dear Jim,

This won't take long. I'm not in the mood to beat around the bush.

You need to retire.

You need to retire now.

Sure, you're the gold standard in athletic administration.  You're one heck of a visionary.  Playing chess, while other people play checkers.  Flooding the coffers of your member institutions in the process.  Turning proverbial lemons into lemonade.

Here's what you're not doing: engendering a culture of competitiveness; putting your teams in a position to succeed.  By allowing the members of this conference to rest on their laurels, and pad their wallets in the process -- national perception, be damned -- you've become college athletics' biggest apologist.  And frankly, I'm sick and tired of your "vision" for the Big Ten.

I don't give a fuck about your fancy network.  The production value is about as good as the student film I made in college.  I don't give a shit about manifest destiny, when it results in the addition of two mediocre programs from inferior ranks.

You may be winning the battle on a balance sheet, but you're losing the war.  Do you realize that?

This is no longer a cycle.  This is not a blip on the radar.

The most successful conference in the history of Division 1 athletics is on the ropes and you care more about eyeballs than results.  You care more about dollars than sense.

It's time for you to go.