Podcast Alert: Kevin Warren – Big Ten

Transcript

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[00:00:00] Kevin Warren: I’m so positive on the energy of our student athletes. They’re smart, they’re bright, they’re tough, they have vision, they work hard, they’re passionate they’re leaders. And so I’m just so encouraged about what the future holds for not only the Big Ten, but for college athletics and in our country.

[00:00:32] AJ Maestas: Hello and welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host, AJ Maestas, Founder of Navigate, a data driven consulting firm, guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast, hoping to share the interesting stories and experiences of the amazing people we get to work with at Navigate.

And even though they’re visionaries and famous in many instances, their true stories aren’t often heard since they’re not on the playing field. Our hope is you get to know them better and learn from them [00:01:00] as we have.

Today I’m happy to be joined by Kevin Warren, commissioner of the Big Ten. Thank you for joining us, Kevin.

[00:01:12] Kevin Warren: Good to be here AJ, always good spend time with you.

[00:01:15] AJ Maestas: I’m assuming life has been hectic. I hope we’re catching you at a good time though.

[00:01:18] Kevin Warren: Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of the nature of the business that we work in. These are, you probably have read or heard me say before, these are first world problems, so, never complained whatsoever. And it’s an opportunity to be able to work in college sports and make the world a better place. I’ve enjoyed it.

[00:01:34] AJ Maestas: We’re feeling the same pain right now. And we just got off a call where we were trying to like, you know, remind ourselves to practice gratitude on the fact that we even get to be in these rooms and in these situations.

And it’s exciting and it’s fun. And. We’re shaping the future. You know what I mean? Well, for those that don’t know, Kevin, just to, to tease this up, he has a long NFL history. He was general counsel and a player admin at the Rams, at the Detroit lions. You’ve been in the representation business as an agent.

I don’t know if a lot of people actually know this. And you were a part of the acquisition of the Vikings where you ran them for a number of years. All before [00:02:00] being the Big Ten commissioner. So if you don’t mind me jumping into a question, in joining the Big Ten after 21 years in the NFL, and again, most recently 15 seasons with the Vikings, I would love to know what you see as the difference between professional and collegiate sports.

And it certainly feels like this is changing, right?

[00:02:14] Kevin Warren: I believe it’s changing. I think it’s changing for the better. They’re talented athletes and in professional sports financially, they’re professional athletes and in college they’re student athletes. And, you know, our focus, at the collegiate level constantly, you know, remains of what do we do in the best interest of the student athletes and, and afford them a platform and an opportunity to get a world class education at one of our schools, and be able to participate at a high level from an athletic standpoint. So they’re different, but I enjoy both professions. And I just feel blessed again, like you said to literally have spent my entire career, you know, in sports and business and law, and to be able to meld all these different things together. But I, I consider myself grateful.

I’m grateful each and every day to be able to work [00:03:00] with some wonderful people. And it’s an interesting time though, that we live in.

[00:03:04] AJ Maestas: I would love to know how you kind of compare the schedules and life of a student athlete versus a pro because you know, over dinner, you know, we’ve had discussions about some of the let’s call it babysitting, you know, that has to take place even with professional athletes, right?

When you’ve got all these guys making all this money, but you were a student athlete, right? You played hoops at the University of Pennsylvania. Then at grand canyon University where you’re in the hall of fame, by the way, your stuff is still hanging up there for whenever you get back here into the whole Colangelo hall of fame, I know you’re on the board of the university, but I don’t know if you ever walk in there and look at yourself.

[00:03:32] Kevin Warren: I had to go off the board when I came to the Big Ten, but I was on it for, for years. I love GCU.

[00:03:37] AJ Maestas: So you’ve been there. I mean, you played college hoops at two different universities and at a high level, right. If you’re in their hall of fame and all that good stuff. When you compare that to, the juxtapose that versus the pro world, what do you think, what do you think of the demands on the modern student athlete and the state of current collegiate athletics?

[00:03:51] Kevin Warren: You know, AJ it’s evolving. I mean, I think it’s in a state of, of disruption, you know, I I’m hopeful and prayerful that as we come out of this disruption, one I think is [00:04:00] gonna last for a couple more years. I think this is a. You know, 12 to 36 month period of perpetual disruption. And there’ll be some unique opportunities, you know, life even for student athletes will continually, you know, improve during this, this time of change.

And I think in any industry you can always look back and see there’s certain periods of times of change and made that industry even more, you know, more fortified. I mean, we’re dealing with it on a much lower level, as far as when we talk about athletics. But on a much greater level, you think what happened to our country in the sixties during the civil rights era.

I mean, we had a lot of tumultuous issues that we had to face, but we were able to make progress as a country. And that’s one of the reasons why the country we live in is so strong. So I just think in these times of change. I think the most difficult thing is for people to understand that the only constant is change and either you embrace it and be on the forefront of it, or you’re gonna be left to [00:05:00] basically happen to deal with what people decide to do.

And I’m just not one of those persons. I don’t like, you know, operating that way. So I just think we need to make sure that we always ask ourself even every day, what’s in the best interest of our student athletes. You know, I look forward to continually creating opportunities for our student athletes, not only from an athletic standpoint, but also from an academic standpoint.

And, and just from a personal standpoint. So, you know, I think these times are gonna be really interesting and I’m looking forward to, to hopefully have an opportunity to continually lead this conference at a high level.

[00:05:32] AJ Maestas: You know, bringing up the sixties, if you don’t mind me asking, just because you know, obviously I I’ve met most of your family and brothers and cousins and what have you. And you’re from Phoenix, you know, even today, Phoenix is half as likely than the national average to be an African American. You were a kid in the sixties. And I think about your father and his successes and challenges, founding member of the Fiesta Bowl. But it also wasn’t easy.

Right? I mean I don’t know if you’d like to share.

[00:05:56] Kevin Warren: I think, you know, just life’s not easy. And we [00:06:00] still live in a, in a society. That, you know, race relations still have some challenges, but I I’ve just remained hopeful. Part of the reason why I remain so hopeful is because of our young people.

I get a chance to spend a lot of time with our student athletes. We were just, you know, on a trip to Selma Alabama, where we had a hundred individuals from our Big Ten conference go to visit. A lot of our student athletes, whether it’s at football media days, we have volleyball media days for our women coming up next Monday and Tuesday here in Chicago.

But you know, I’m so positive about the energy of our student athletes. They’re smart. They’re bright, they’re tough, they’re wise, they have vision, they work hard. They have empathy, they’re passionate, they’re leaders. And so I’m just so encouraged about what the future holds for not only the Big Ten, but for college athletics and our country, because of the leadership that we have from a collegiate standpoint.

[00:06:49] AJ Maestas: I would love to know just a smidge, you know, about, because I think it’s a healthy conversation, you know, in the middle of all the social unrest the last few years here in the United States. And, and we’re talking about, you know, social justice in [00:07:00] general, one of the first things you did was create the Big Ten Equality Coalition.

And for those who are listening or unfamiliar with what Kevin just shared about the coalition recently hosting that trip to Selma and Montgomery, down in Alabama, you took a hundred Big Ten student athletes down there. Can you tell me why and what come from that?

One of the

[00:07:17] Kevin Warren: reasons why we call it the Big Life Series is we wanna create an environment outside of sports and even academics that we can help our student athletes become spectacular people and expose them to things that maybe they haven’t had an opportunity to be exposed to. Probably right when I started, you know, we, we had to deal with COVID.

Then we had the George Floyd murder. I wrote a letter, an open letter and was told that I think the library of Congress actually picked up the letter and then have have it in their archives. But it was during that time that I started thinking, is that what as a conference, could we do to even greater expose our student athletes to another educational opportunity.

They learn so much on a daily basis [00:08:00] in sports competing, practicing, being disciplined, working hard, all those different things. And then you add on top of that the incredible opportunity that they earn every day to go to class and learn and, and graduate and prepare for life. But I thought back to when I was a kid in Phoenix, as you alluded to, and the days that I really loved were, you know, the weeks that we had field trips.

And so, you know, we’d be in science class and studying about, say animals, and then we’d get a chance to go to the zoo. Or we were in art class and then we’d go to an art gallery. And I remember in music class, we went to a concert and those are things that really bring the educational experience in the classroom to life.

Even simple days, there were times that our teacher would go out and say, we’re gonna sit on the grass and study the sky. And, you know, we would learn about clouds, but then you go out and actually look up in the sky. So that was where really where the idea came from. And I will tell you that, that still to this day even it’s been a couple weeks, I’m emotional every single day, thinking about it.

Cause to see our student athletes [00:09:00] really embrace this trip, the preparation work that they went into it for the trip. And then we took the bus ride from Montgomery to Selma, it’s 54 miles. And for them, my challenge to them was, you know, one, what would you walk 54 miles for? And two, it took ’em five days, you know, they weren’t on a bus like us.

And they weren’t walking along the highway, you know, it was against opposition. And all it was, was to get a, really, an opportunity to be able to vote because of some issues with the voting construct in Selma. So, you know, we, as a people, are we committed to really make this country a better place?

So it was powerful then to go through some of the museums and go to the, you know, equal justice initiative museum, and then Brian Stevenson agreed to come and, and speak with us. And so it, it was, it was truly, truly, a magical opportunity that is life changing, and we’re gonna make a long-term commitment to go back to Selman and Montgomery start, hopefully building some Habitat for Humanity homes and [00:10:00] playgrounds and engage the schools there.

And uh, You know, I, I didn’t even notice a drug store or grocery store, and there’s so many things that we can do and I just wanna make sure we lean it to Selma and Montgomery. And then eventually we’ll go visit the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. and african museum of natural history. There’s so many places around our country from, from New York to L.A.

That our students can benefit from an out of the classroom learning experience.

[00:10:24] AJ Maestas: Well, I agree, there’s this Thomas Jefferson quote that I love, which he essentially said never neglect your education for your studies and you know, athletics is a part of it. How many lessons in your life came from sports?

And, you know, he founded UVA and. His sort of vision with UVA was putting, you know, professors there with students in real life situations and all that stuff. Well, you mentioned a time of change and no question we’re in a radical time of change and I appreciate your curiosity. I mean, that’s an absolute requirement to Navigate to it is as far as working on our team, I think it’s a key key trait because.

If you’re not curious, you’re not asking yourself about these future things, what might be [00:11:00] and what could be, and how do we shape that future? So if you don’t mind me asking, it seems like the Power Five conferences are gonna take a lot of autonomy from the NCAA. I’d love to know how you think that should look.

You know, I’m, I’m guessing our listeners are bored of hearing me ask this question, but I’ve asked all your counterparts at the other Power Five conferences, the other commissioners, you know, if you were the czar of collegiate athletics, what would you do with this rapidly changing situation we’re in, and the future of collegiate athletics?

[00:11:25] Kevin Warren: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I mean, I think, you know, I don’t think there’s a linear answer on that. I don’t think there’s one answer. I think there’s multiple things, but I know some of the things and it may sound basic that we need to do is to one, start with better communication and to communicate, you know, better and probably in a, in a more efficient manner.

I think the majority of issues that you have from a personal standpoint, and from a professional standpoint, comes down to communication or the lack thereof. So I think that’s one of the fundamental things that we in college athletics can, can probably do better. And I think the other [00:12:00] thing, and kind of back to what we just talked about, AJ just is because we’re in this time, of change is so many times I I’ve seen that people are, are fearful of change.

Like, what does it mean? What is it gonna mean for me? Why is this, oh, I’m not gonna be able to do this like we used to do before. Well, that that’s the world that we live in. And, and fortunately I’m grateful for my parents, because they raised me, raised my other siblings in an environment that you know, be preparedbecause your life can change in a moment.

And I think one of the reasons why I probably remain comfortable in times of maybe change in crises. And we’ve had ’em since I’ve been here, we’ll have ’em in the future. Is, you know, I was run over by a car at 11 and a half years old. I shouldn’t be here. I should have died that day, on that sunny day in June, I should have died.

And so because of that, I’m very mindful that nothing is guaranteed. I don’t think I did anything to deserve that prior to that day, leading up to that day or the exact day, that day was a normal day. I [00:13:00] got up, my parents went to work, even though they were going to work and it was summer. We had certain duties and chores got up, took a shower, brushed our teeth, made our bed, you know, fed the dog and then there’s certain things, you know, cooked ourselves breakfast and loaded the dishwasher. And there are things that we had to do. And then for me to go get on my bike and I’m just riding up to the school, to play with my friends and get run over, I should have died. So because of that, I became probably accepting of change in my life.

And I think every day’s a gift. And I think one of the things, when you start talking about building college athletics, is that we need to create an environment that just because something was successful before, and I’m all for traditions, may not mean that it’ll be successful next year. And I don’t want to just change to make change, but we in college athletics need to be a little bit more nimble that when we notice things that are occurring, that are not in our best interests collectively or individually, that we need to be willing enough and comfortable enough with each other to [00:14:00] sit down and, and, and address something we change.

When you look at our bowl system, we have too many bowls and some people get maybe offended when I say that. It’s true, but what’s the barrier to entry for starting a bowl game? It’s not much. And then if you have a location and can find a stadium and an open date and get a sponsor you can start a bowl game.

And so I don’t know if that’s really healthy because now you see some of the bowls that we have are, they struggle, and didn’t make it right, wrong, or indifferent. Now I love having a lot of bowls because it gives more student athletes an opportunity, but we need to make sure that everything that we do, whether it’s bowls or something else that is qualitative, you know, those are the things that I just think that we need in college athletics, whether it’s from NCAA or like you said, the governing body to go forward, we need to communicate better. We need to be more nimble. We need to be more realistic. We need to have our, our ear to the street more and understand really what is important to our student athletes and their families and to the entire enterprise.

And then [00:15:00] we recognize that something’s not working, maybe the way that we thought it should work or the way we know it should work, then we need to be willing to, to make a change.

[00:15:08] AJ Maestas: Well, I don’t disagree with you at all. And it’s that whole classic innovator’s dilemma challenge is kind of, it’s almost embarrassing in these, these institutions that are the center of innovation in our country and research, and they’re supposed to be this safe place.

Right. We’re taking risks we just don’t often do, right. There’s this resistance to it. If you don’t mind sticking with that subject. I would love to know talking about there being too many bowl games and I don’t disagree, you know, are you hinting at an expanded playoff or you know, if we could start this over again, you know, this isn’t what it looks like, right?

Like four teams being selected into a playoff it’s really a selection, right? Like it’s a invitational essentially. If you had your druthers, when you think about that, and you think about the future of collegiate athletics, there’s all these rumors, right? That with more autonomy, the conferences will take back.

There’s certainly no centralized leadership. So they’ll take back control on their destiny and their rules and people are indicating and hinting at the idea that the CFP could play that [00:16:00] central role for football. So I know there’s a lot in that question, but I would love to know, in that bigger picture.

With that curious mind, what do you think ought to be done or could be done with an expanded playoff with football being autonomously managed with the Big Ten in particular, given that that’s your fiefdom?

[00:16:17] Kevin Warren: Yeah, I believe that this is a time for us to take a hard look at it. I’m a 100% supporter of college football playoff expansion.

I’m excited about our upcoming meeting. And, you know, I feel confident that at the end of this current contract, that we will have an agreement as far as what the construct should look like. And in this discussion, we do need to, you know, make sure that we’re on the same page in regards to the role of bowls in the college football playoff expansion, how the revenue is going to be split within the entire, you know, enterprise.

I think we should have multiple media partners who have a chance to come to the table and to be able to, to bid on it because we have fans that consume content in different ways. We need to make sure we truly understand [00:17:00] the health and safety impact on our student athletes. Make sure it doesn’t get in a way of the academics, that it really is additive. And then we need to understand what role as I’ve talked about before, many of us have this automatic qualifier, you know, what value do we put on conference play, the regular season. So are any of these issues insurmountable? Absolutely not. We’ll be able to address all of them.

I feel there was you know, some, some freshness in the room. The last time we met in Park City Utah. And then I’m confident that when we get back together that we’ll be able. Start really dealing with these issues. A couple things I’m excited about is that one, we have a new commissioner, Brett Yormark of the Big 12.

He is incredibly bright. He’s smart. He’s a marketing genius. He has his ear to the ground. He understands pop culture and music and entertainment from being at Roc Nation. He understands, you know, stadiums and arenas and how to operate businesses from his time in the NBA. So it’d be good to have him in, in the room and, and, and also.

I’m looking forward to Kristina Johnson. Who’s our [00:18:00] president at The Ohio State University. She’s our new board member that replaced Eric Barron at Penn State who retired. So I just need some fresh energy from fresh blood, but we’re gonna have to have some adult conversations around the table and, and make a determination what’s in the best interest of our student athletes, our fans in the college football at at large.

[00:18:18] AJ Maestas: That is a good point. That’s good leadership. You know, I got to meet Kristina when you did, if you recall, when we were at that Oregon, Ohio State game together last year and with her and her wife and the suite. And it was pretty clear, pretty quickly from their team around them that she’s progressive and, and she’s already loved by the university and setting nice direction. So that’s pretty cool.

And I agree about Brett Yormark as well. That means now we have you with a professional sports background and George Kliavkoff in the Pac-12 with the professional sports background. In addition to Brett Yormark at the Big 12. We have more pro sports guys running these Power Five conferences than traditional collegiate administrators, which is kind of exciting and interesting.

Well, I’m glad you’re excited for it. I am too. It hurts me sometimes to see the pain of [00:19:00] transition, you know, the metamorphosis, you know, there are consequences, right. You know, I’m a Pac-12 fan, you know? And so it’s sort of, kind of scary to wonder what their future holds, but the truth is that I agree the only constant is change.

And we’re kind of heading toward what I suppose is an inevitable future and Navigate of course plays this role in accelerating that. And then sometimes I wonder, sometimes I even feel a little guilt. But these are some big wins for you, by the way, some of the big bold moves like Los Angeles, the tone of who you are in the press has radically changed.

Right? I mean, wow. You, there were some accolades coming out of your press week. So congratulations to that. And I know that makes Greta happy. Your number one defender, and protector.

[00:19:37] Kevin Warren: Yeah. Only thing about Greta is you you’ve been around her, she doesn’t take this stuff real seriously. She doesn’t. I mean, she knows that as far as accolades or even people saying things, they shouldn’t say those things, you know, one year you’re embraced the next year you’re not. And so fortunately she and I are a lot a like. We don’t take this stuff seriously. This is even bigger than a job. We have a responsibility to do [00:20:00] what’s in the best interest

of our student athletes and the Big Ten and represent this Big Ten conference, and bring a new, fresh thought process. So fortunately I’ve been married to someone who really doesn’t, you know, that’s why you see her. She attends, you know, all, all the events. She’s always there, but she’s not engrossed in this arena because there are other interests that we have.

And so, fortunately, that’s what keeps our family stable and both she and I are very non-emotional people and we don’t take stuff personal. We just understand, I know as I’ve grown older, I really have developed a really good skill of listening to what people are saying. You know, in regards to those people that I trust and respect and and not how they say it, but to really try to get better.

But I just don’t take this stuff personally. I really don’t. I feel like I do the best I possibly can. Our faith is very strong and our faith is important to both Greta and to me, and I want to be the best person I possibly can be. And all these other kind of outside forces that come along as I call them. Being in the [00:21:00] sports industry, I try not to take the head fakes on ’em because once you grow in love with being around sports and all that kind of stuff, then I think that’s when some people will start making decisions based upon factors that they, they shouldn’t shouldn’t make the decision on.

So we both kind of bless these each and every day. We love the big team. We love working here. And I could continually tell myself I’m on a one day contract and do the best I can that day. And hopefully I can continually have an opportunity to lead this conference.

[00:21:27] AJ Maestas: Well, I like that a one day contract.

That’s good. You know Tod Leiweke, I don’t think it ended up in our podcast, but he said at one point, you do your best work when you are fearless. You don’t need the job. You’re not worried about being fired. You’re doing what you think is right. And you and I, I know, talked about that.

You know, one of the conversations I’ve had with a number of people, maybe it’s just rumors, but you know, they kind of talk about professionalization of collegiate athletics and you know, what’s gonna happen with collective bargaining and labor law and unionization. When you see what’s going on with Penn State, what have you, and they talk about these being like pro teams, which you have a great deal of experience [00:22:00] with, you know, where there’s an owner with a vested interest in the outcome. And what have you.

And I recall we met, you were my law professor, by the way when you were working on the Vikings purchase, if I remember you had a different owner, you were representing at the time. I’d love it. If you could sort of compare and contrast that, you know, to what’s going on in the collegiate world, like, do you think it’s realistic or possible, professionalization?

Would it be healthy that there be, you know, an owner or equity stakes in some of these athletic departments? So someone is making long-term investments.

[00:22:27] Kevin Warren: You know, the answer of all that is, I love all these different ideas. We just need to make sure that we create and protect the environment to allow our student athletes to have an opportunity to be able to compete at the highest level.

If they’re talented and good enough for them to be able to go compete in the Olympics or in pro sports, but that they can really embrace the education component. This summer, we have a summer intern here named Jerome Felton. Why is it important? Jerome played at Furman in college and had a good [00:23:00] career.

Got drafted, our path crossed at the Vikings. He was a fullback for the Vikings for a couple years while I was there and he was the fullback that made the pro bowl the year that Adrian Peterson went over 2000 yards. But he ends up playing nine years in the league, having a good career, married has two children, saved his money, dabbled a little bit in business after he retired and then went to law school. And he and I have stayed in touch.

So he just finished his first year of law school. He worked for a prominent firm in Atlanta this summer, but he came in here and well is doing a couple week internship here at the Big Ten. And so I was just telling someone this morning that those are the kind of stories that our student athletes, our fans, the world needs to hear about.

You know, this is a young man just like me, but that college athletics changed his life. Like I said, he was able to participate at the highest level, go on professionally to make a pro bowl. And now he, you know, he’s in law school. And so in, within 24 months, he’s gonna be graduating [00:24:00] and taking the bar, and practicing, and he could be, and he could be a judge, a lawyer, he could be a commission one day.

But those are the benefits. Those are stories. Those are the things that get me up in the morning. When I see young people like that, we were able to have dinner together last night you know, with him, with my family. But those are stories that you look at and say, okay, he took advantage of the college scholarship and then playing, you know, professionally and now being able to do it.

So that’s why I’m so, when I talk about being so hopeful for the future. And I just think we need to, no environment’s gonna be perfect, but I think we need to make sure that no matter what we do, and like you said, professionalizing college athletics, or, you know, how it becomes a business structure entity, regardless of that, we just need to make sure that our student athletes not only are allowed, but encouraged to really reach to the top of the tree from there from an education standpoint. One of the reasons why I ended up going [00:25:00] to law school and not medical school,because I started off as a biology major at Penn, I wanted to be a doctor because of my accident, was because that our, some of our labs were during practice time.

So, you know, biology worked out, but when I got into chemistry and organic chemistry, those labs were during practice. And so that’s something that I’m glad that many of our institutions create that environment. So if we do have student athletes who wanna be a lawyer or doctor, or do certain things from an education standpoint, that they’re encouraged to do it, our student athletes are encouraged to do it.

And adjustments, even in practice and, and schedules are made to allow those student athletes to be able to do it. So that’s the beautiful thing about being in the Big Ten. All of our schools have a strong, strong, strong, strong academic focus and in conjunction with their athletic focus. And it’s an honor to serve this conference on a daily basis.

[00:25:54] AJ Maestas: Yeah, that’s true. That’s definitely true. The Big Ten’s in a very nice place, a very good place. And I’m happy for you [00:26:00] for that. And I’m happy for the fans and alumni from Big Ten universities. Well, if you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you a couple quick hitter questions here before we wrap up. How about the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do before you go to bed?

[00:26:11] Kevin Warren: They’re the same. I pray., I mean, I literally, once I wake up. Literally roll out of the bed, get on my knees, and if I I start my morning with prayer, my knees, and then I go look at my face, and then I get my day started. And that’s the last thing I do, before I get into bed, go on my hands and knees. I do it multiple times throughout the day.

[00:26:30] AJ Maestas: I knew you’re a man of faith, but I did not know, what a routine. How about a guilty pleasure on a lighter note.

[00:26:35] Kevin Warren: Oh, is it’s an interesting question, Greta always tells me I need to pick up some hobbies. She said, I just, you know, I enjoy working out.

I love food, to collect wine. So it’s probably a guilty pleasure of mine is that I like collecting and a giving wine away probably more than I drink it, but I do, I enjoy collecting wine and probably because of the history and the tradition associated with it, you know, it’s amazing that you can [00:27:00] take grapes that look pretty much the same, but based upon, you know, the winds, the rain, the weather, the sun, the location, the clouds, how they create that beautiful taste. There’s something magical about a great bottle of wine. And the other thing I like about it’s not only magical, the taste, but when you do it with people that you care about it just, it brings so many people together. So I’ll probably say that’s a guilty pleasure of me.

[00:27:24] AJ Maestas: Yeah, I get that. And I get that bonding too. I’ll never forget our little ride together with wine. That was, that was one of those surreal moments.

[00:27:31] Kevin Warren: We gotta do it again this year.

[00:27:33] AJ Maestas: Yeah. When I think of that place in time, my life, history loving collegiate athletics, the whole, the whole day was really special.

This is gonna be about advice you can offer a young person who wants to fall on your footsteps, but I can’t resist going back to that young man you were talking about, who’s going to law school who working with you at the conference office at least once a month, I’m in communication with one of your former mentees.

A lot of lawyers, given your background, right. And, and GCs, but you really live that mindset and attitude of mentorship and growth and investment in [00:28:00] young people. And some of the stories are just incredible for those listening, that that might not know the real commitment you make to making those people comfortable, welcome making this all accessible and all kinds of people of diversity.

So kudos to you. I couldn’t resist slipping that in. What advice would you give though, to a young person, the next Kevin Warren?

[00:28:17] Kevin Warren: I think the biggest advice is, and I say it all the time. Tell my children, is that take the long-term approach. I see so many time people right now making poor decisions, you know, based upon like short-term, what they believe to be short-term gains.

And there’s so much people always trying to compete with what their friends are making or whatever. Take the long-term approach. And I just was talking to dinner last night and I was, you know, I say it all the time. I mean, I graduated from law school in 1990. I mean, I’ve been out of school for 30, I’ve been working for 32 years.

I mean, I was working before thenbecause I worked in college and as a young person, but as a true professional for 32 years. And so to get an [00:29:00] opportunity, to be a commissioner at the Big Ten conference, you know, for me takes a long time, it was almost 30 years to get to that position. And it’s 30 years of a grind.

I mean, every day, it wasn’t like 30 years of vacation. So the thing with young, I see so many young people right now, just job jumping. They want to get in sports and they start at one job and then they hear about one of their friends who’s making a little bit more money, then they go jump at another company they’re picking up and moving across the country.

They’re doing this and doing that most of really good things in life, take time and preparation. The other thing is to really be focused that no learning is lost learning. That was a lesson that my mom and dad literally preached to me and my siblings every single day. They said it every day. No learning is lost learning.

And I remember my second summer of law school, I had a project on property, a property project, which I struggled in property because it was really, you know, hard. It was difficult. And I remember I was not happy when they handed out the project to me on a property [00:30:00] question. And then it seemed like no sooner than I got that done, two weeks later, it came back to me and I had another property question.

So it seemed like that summer I must have had three or four property questions. And that was probably my least favorite area. And then you fast forward 25 plus years later, I’m in the middle of building a stadium in Minnesota, which is basically a property project. And so a lot of things that I had learned about easements and property laws and ownership and rights, and even I was able to reflect back to say, wow, I am grateful that I had those projects and I’m grateful that I kind of just had to grind through ’em because what, what it did is at the end of that summer, I really learned to like property. And so I was looking at my selection of magazines and newspaper articles. I started reading about it. So that’s what got me on the path.

And that was probably in the summer of ’88, ’89. And then, like I said, you look at. 2014, [00:31:00] ’15, ’16, ’17, you know, ’18 in that period at the Vikings where we were building U.S. Bank Stadium, I had then gone on a 20 year study of like real estate and whether it was personal real estate investments or property or learning and looking at different things.

So I was really prepared to be involved in that project. And so that’s a lesson for me. I’m always interested in, you know, God has an interesting way of bringing things into your life that you need to learn, maybe not for the moment, but for the future. And so I always challenge young people, you know, just embrace it.

You know, we get, even in sports, I knew growing up for me, we played every sport. You know, we would go from football into basketball season. I ended up liking basketball more and playing that in college, but we played baseball. You know, we swam, we ran track. I used to work out with the wrestlers, and then nowadays I go to some of these camps and I see a six-year-old person with a shooting sleeve on, and they’ve already talked about, you know, they got a trainer and train every day and[00:32:00] I’m like you’re six-years-old. You don’t know, you may be a great tennis player. You may, you know, be a great golfer, just go experience. And I think it helps from just from a cross training standpoint with your muscle and your body and all that kind of stuff. So I say all that to say the biggest advice I give to young people, enjoy life, embrace life, learn, stop putting so much pressure on yourself.

You’ll end up recognizing all your dreams, hopes, and desires that you hope for, and just take the long-term approach. Take time to smell the roses. And because life goes so fast. AJ, seems like, you know, I was just, like I said, teaching that class at Arizona State when you were a student and then, I mean, you think about that.

That was in the early two thousands. And now you look up and it’s 20 plus years later. And so a lot of the things I know for me, I never have worried, a lot of things that I’ve spent a lot of wasted energy on, especially when I was younger. You look back now and, it’s taking care of itself.

So do the best you can. And enjoy life and embrace life and work [00:33:00] hard. Give more than you take and try to help people as much as you possibly can to make the world a better place.

[00:33:06] AJ Maestas: No, I really appreciate that, especially, because having known you these 20 years, I know you lived that and, and you were doing a favor to us to be an adjunct professor.

You didn’t need to do that. You didn’t need the money. You were a partner to law firm, you were working on the purchase of an NFL team, which you later ran and yet you made time for us. I mean, it was kind of incredible if you look back at it and think about it, I really appreciate that perspective. And I appreciate you taking me along for that ride, by the way, like, you talked a bit about property there and real estate investments, and that’s something we hope to see more of, you know, like for profit real estate developments in the collegiate world, what you did with that stadium, it pays its for itself.

And then so grateful to have played, however, teeny of a part in the practice facility and the real estate development and everything after it, it all pays for itself, the hotel, but who would’ve thought you turn,

[00:33:50] Kevin Warren: You played a big part of it. I mean, you really were. So I’m so grateful to you and I’m grateful for my parents that they always told us that, you know what life’s, focus on planting flowers, [00:34:00] and trees that you’ll never benefit from.

And I think so many times we’re focused on, you know, plant a tree in the house and we know that we’re gonna be in that house or we think we’re gonna be in that house for 20 years and we’ll plant trees, but if we’re only renting a house for a year, we’re on a temporary side, then we don’t plant any flowers of trees.

My parents used to always say plant it for someone else, you know, since you’re in a house, even if you’re in a rental property and you know a tree would make a difference. You never know a kid may lay under that tree one day and read a book. And so I’m a big believer in that.

It’s funny you say that. Just two days ago, I got an email from someone. They don’t even have my current email address. They sent it to someone else who got it to me about, Notre Dame, that they were a first year law student. We were first year law students together. He didn’t have a place to go home and I invited him over to my sister’s house.

And he was still talking about this Thanksgiving dinner in 1987. mean, you think about that, that is like 35 years ago. I need to remember that story. But that’s just the right thing to [00:35:00] do. If you know a classmate is far away from home, we don’t want them eating fast food, what’s that?

So there’s so many things that mean a lot to people that you don’t even really know. That’s why I’m so grateful for you. You’ve helped so much for me in my career, I owe you so much and I’m glad to see you doing so well in this, in this interesting industry that we both love.

[00:35:23] AJ Maestas: You’re way too kind, but I really appreciate that. And I meant what I said as far as being able to be along for the ride with you, but those are, those are meaningful things. You describing what you did with that classmate? This is a little bit of a tangent, but I think, you know, we lost our mutual friend, Roger Valdiserri recently.

And one of the stories.

[00:35:40] Kevin Warren: I remember, Roger and I went to a Notre Dame USC game when I was right out of law school. Funny story. I’m not good with directions. And we ended up getting lost. We had a rental car, ended up getting lost in south central, L.A. driving around trying to find LAX and know Roger [00:36:00] was just, we had some laughs about that.

He was a really, just special, special person. I love his family. And what he meant to me and to Notre Dame and, and then pro football, and he was just a spectacular, you know, human being, he was one of a kind.

[00:36:16] AJ Maestas: Yeah, he has so many special stories. You’ll love this. Before he passed, we were able to sneak in a recording with him, for a podcast, getting some of those great stories and they are,

[00:36:25] Kevin Warren: I gotta listen to it.

[00:36:26] AJ Maestas: Yeah. I’ll send it to you in follow up or I’ll put it in the notes of this, but I’ll send it to you. It is, you know, you get his best stories and I mean, he’s like the Forest Gump of collegiate athletics. It’s unbelievable what the man did and touched and impacted. You know, another one I’ll share with you is Gene Smith, because when you were just describing your advice for a young person. You describe the patience and everything is a learning lesson, I kid you not, he speaks to those. He spoke to all of that in his path and patience, you know, and rising up at the time he did in the climate in which he did in his career.

So, and I know you became fast friends, right? When you took this job.

Alright, well, I’m super, super grateful, [00:37:00] you joined us here. And again, for those listening, this is AJ Maestas with Navigate joined by Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten. Thank you for joining us on Navigating Sports Business.

[00:37:09] Kevin Warren: You’re doing a good job, and I look forward to, let’s break bread soon, and I appreciate spending the time with you.

[00:37:27] AJ Maestas: If anybody listening has any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us. My email is AJ@NVGT.com.

It’s kind of Navigate with no vowels, and you can also connect with us on our LinkedIn page or my personal LinkedIn page. So that’s Navigate or myself. Again, this is AJ Maestas, thank you again for joining us on Navigating Sports Business.[00:38:00]