The Big Ten takes over Indianapolis, Indiana, this week as Big Ten Media Days comes to Lucas Oil Stadium, annual site of the conference championship game. Players and coaches from seven schools will take the stage each day for a series of interviews and press conferences.
It serves as one of the mileposts that lets you know the season is drawing near, and it's as a bit of a refresher course for everybody. While this year's event won't have the buzz of the USC and UCLA announcement from last summer, there are still plenty of major changes and storylines that will be addressed.
Let's have a look now at what you can expect to see and hear in Indianapolis this week.
Tony Petitti's debut
Last year, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren served as the bright, shining star of Big Ten Media Days after the league shocked the college football world with the stunning addition of USC and UCLA. After discussing the merits of the addition, Warren would show everybody the real meaning a few weeks later when the Big Ten announced its new seven-year, $7 billion TV deal.
Before the season ended, though, Warren took another job, moving a few miles north from the Big Ten headquarters to take over as president of the Chicago Bears. Tony Petitti was named as his replacement and took over officially in May.
While Petitti is likely to receive some questions about the Big Ten's new divisional and scheduling format set to begin in 2024 with the addition of USC and UCLA, he's stepping in as the head of the Big Ten table at an interesting time. The TV deal is done, but a few controversies are brewing within the league he's more than likely to be asked about.
One could even be the biggest story of media days...
Northwestern players absent
The hazing scandal that has rocked Northwestern athletic department and led to the firing of longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald has captured headlines around the country over the past month, and many were surprised to see that interim coach David Braun and his player representatives would still be in attendance for Big Ten Media Days. That all changed on Tuesday, however, as player reps Bryce Gallagher, Rod Heard II and Bryce Kirtz released a statement announcing they would not be attending after all.
The players cited not wanting to turn the attention away from the college football season ahead, and truthfully, that's exactly what would have happened. Still, interim coach David Braun will still be in attendance to answer many questions that assuredly won't have anything to do with on-field action for the Wildcats this season.
Iowa gambling investigation
Speaking of controversies, it was announced last week that Iowa defensive lineman Noah Shannon would not make the trip to Indy. Shannon was initially chosen as one of Iowa's three player representatives alongside defensive back Cooper DeJean and tight end Luke Lachey. Instead of Shannon, it'll be linebacker Jay Higgins.
Why? Because Shannon is one of 26 Iowa athletes across all sports under investigation for "potential criminal conduct related to sports wagering that also suggested possible NCAA violations." That doesn't mean Shannon did anything wrong, but he said in a statement that he didn't "feel it is right for me to represent the team" while the investigation is ongoing.
It makes sense, seeing as it's all he'd be asked about and would serve as a distraction. Instead, it'll be Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz who is asked about it and how it could impact his Hawkeyes roster during the 2023 season. For once, Ferentz will probably prefer to talk about Iowa's struggling offense.
Can Michigan take the next step?
Well, would you look at that? There's going to be a football discussion, too! Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines are scheduled for Thursday, and they come to Indy as the big team on campus. Last year, the Wolverines were the reigning Big Ten champions and reached the College Football Playoff for the first time, but there was skepticism about whether they could do it again. Plus, you know, there was that whole "Jim Harbaugh interviewed with the Minnesota Vikings on National Signing Day" thing that was something of a distraction.
Well, this year Michigan is a two-time reigning Big Ten champion and coming off its second consecutive CFP berth. And Harbaugh didn't have any in-person interviews for any NFL coaching jobs! At least, not that we know of! So this time we'll be able to focus on whether or not Michigan can not only three-peat in the league but what changes, if any, has Harbaugh and the program implemented to take the next step -- winning a College Football Playoff game once they get there.
Listen, though, I didn't say there wouldn't be any off-the-field matters to discuss in addition to whether Michigan can keep the momentum rolling on the field. On Tuesday, it was revealed Harbaugh is expected to be suspended for the first four games of the 2023 season. The potential suspension stems from allegations that Harbaugh provided false or misleading information to the NCAA regarding an investigation into 2021 recruiting violations during an extended "dead period." The first four games of the season aren't exactly a murderer's row for the Wolverines (East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green and Rutgers), but the story still casts a dark cloud over a team that would rather concern itself with on-the-field business.
New-look Ohio State
This is the most interesting Ohio State offseason since Urban Meyer replaced Jim Tressel (OK, technically, he replaced Luke Fickell, but we'll have more on him in a moment) ahead of the 2012 season. There are just a lot of aspects to the 2023 Buckeyes we don't know about yet.
We'll start with Ryan Day, who has done a lot of good in his four seasons. The Buckeyes are 45-6 under Day and have qualified for the CFP three times, reaching the title game once. Last year they nearly knocked off Georgia. Considering what the Dawgs did to TCU in the title game, had the Buckeyes won, it's not crazy to think they'd be reigning national champions.
As incredible as that run is, however, Ohio State has not defeated rival Michigan the last two seasons and has failed to claim a Big Ten title as a result. For a large portion of the fan base, that matters more than the CFP berths or national titles.
Now Ohio State enters the 2023 season with a two-game losing streak to Michigan and will have a new quarterback tasked with replacing C.J. Stroud. Considering Stroud had to replace Justin Fields, there's plenty of reason to be optimistic that presumed starter Kyle McCord will be pretty good, too, though he will be working with a new playcaller. Last year, Ohio State hired Jim Knowles to take over the defense, This year, wide receivers coach Brian Hartline has been promoted to offensive coordinator, and he'll be calling the plays on that side of the ball. That has not been the case in any of Day's seasons as head coach.
So many new coaches
The primary reason Kevin Warren was a star at media days last year was the addition of USC and UCLA. However, another reason was the lack of new faces. There wasn't a single first-year coach in the Big Ten last season. That's not the case this year.
Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin all have new coaches making their media days debut. That's over half the Big Ten West division! Matt Rhule will make his first appearance with Nebraska, Ryan Walters with Purdue, Luke Fickell with Wisconsin and David Braun at Northwestern.
Rhule is likely to face a lot of questions about how he can finally restore Nebraska to its glory years and what he's learned from his failures in the NFL. Walters will be asked about the transition from coordinator to head coach and how he's doing so in the same division where he turned around the Illinois defense. Fickell will face questions about why this was the time he chose to leave Cincinnati (he's had other chances) for a Big Ten job and about what the dramatic overhaul of Wisconsin will look like.
This will be their first chance to make an impression with the entire Big Ten media contingent.
