I cannot copy the whole article, but John Canzano interviewed Big-10 Commissioner Tony Petitti at the B1G Media Days and I learned two things; Canzano is against what we want in the B1G, and is folding in "put-downs" of Petitti and the B1G in his article very skillfully. This was not a factual interview, it was an Opinion-Editorial piece by John.

The other item? Commish Petitti is fighting for his conference...to grow the viewership and attendance--to benefit the conference members. Below are some of his quotes...

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He mentioned the scheduling disparity (with the SEC) on Tuesday, noting, “We have more losses in our conference because we play more conference games.”

Said Petitti: “We’ve got 18 teams now. We need more teams in the playoff.”

Petitti argued on Tuesday that having four guaranteed CFP spots would cause his schools, particularly those with a 6-3 record late in the season, to feel like they had a path to the CFP. That would increase fan interest in the Big Ten regular season, he said, and boost television viewership.

“More teams feeling like they have a chance,” he said, “means more interest in our games.”

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Big-10 Commissioner Tony Petitti

I agree with his statements, and would take it further; if we get four in the Playoff for certain, then B1G and SEC teams would be more apt to schedule high-profile, high-payout non-conference games with each other. It would create a juicier season, more interest in all the games, and it would grow the conference viewership and payouts to conference members.

Canzano is the humor gift that just keeps giving and giving!

Just when you think he can't be any more ridiculous, he proves he can be.

Imagine a conference president that actually wants his own conference to succeed!

Hey JC, stick with the Pac 2 and leave big boy reporting to others more capable.

Thanks for the post, Charles. It's simple: the ACC and the SEC play nine conference games, and the football committee is structured like the basketball committee, using publicly disclosed metrics and adhering to the metrics for selection and seeding, and the B1G will back a 5-11 format.

An inconvenient fact for the folks backing the populist 5-11 format and calling the B1G greedy for backing a format with automatic qualifiers is that B12 commissioner, Brett Yormark, has also conditioned the B12's approval of the 5-11 format on all Power 4 conferences playing nine conference games.

As noted by Charles, like every other conference commissioner Tony Petitti is looking out first and foremost for his conference. Greg Sankey is not backing the 5-11 format for the good of the game.

Wanting to have the same folks competing for the same prize playing the same number of conference games is far from 'radical.' This is the norm across every sport with postseason competition for championships. Having a conference schedule that gives half of the conference teams one fewer loss is not equitable, especially in a sport that subjectively decides the teams that will compete in the postseason.

Meanwhile, Petitti holds the financial high ground, and Sankey and others' breast-beating will not change the B1G's bottom-line lead.

John Canzano's nickname should be "The Human Toothache"