Jim Delany

James Edward Delany (born 1948) is the current commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, a role in which he has served since 1989. He is regarded among college athletics as being influential in the creation of the Bowl Championship Series and its maintenance.

Early life

Delany grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and attended Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1970. While a student there he played for the university's basketball team, playing on two squads that reached the NCAA Final Four. His senior season he was co-captain of the team.[1]

He remained at North Carolina for law school, receiving his Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1973.

Professional career

From 1973 to 1974, Delany was employed as counsel to the North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee. From there, he was hired to the position of staff attorney for the North Carolina Justice Department. In 1975 he moved on to a position in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, working as an enforcement representative. He remained in this position for four years before moving on to the Ohio Valley Conference as its commissioner. He remained commissioner of that conference until 1989 when he was appointed commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.

Memberships and other positions held include a member of the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA), a member of the College Basketball Partnership, vice president of USA Basketball Executive Committee and a member of the board of directors of the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association.

Accomplishments as Big Ten Conference commissioner

During his tenure as commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, Delany has overseen:

Influence

Due to his position, Delany had a significant amount of influence with regard to the Bowl Championship Series. 25% of all U.S. households are in the geographic region covered by the Big Ten Conference. This has had major implications on his influence over college football. Delany opposed the idea of a college football playoff system, arguing that a playoff would diminish the value of regular season games.[2] On April 28, 2013, Delany's actions led to a decline in his overall influence, as he led the conference into an unequal divisional realignment which led the Conference Champion to miss the College Football Playoff two years in a row in 2016 and 2017. The teams in the "East" division include four of the five best teams in the entire Big 10 (Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State), making their schedules unreasonably difficult while the "West" division has only one of the Big 10's most competitive teams, Wisconsin, which benefits from an easier conference schedule and less competition to make the Big Championship game. At the time of the re-alignment, fans and media questioned the fairness of the "East" and "West" divisions, and just three years later, the divisions have proved to be highly problematic for the conference since two consecutive conference champions have not been invited to the College Football Playoff, rendering the designation as Big 10 Champion virtually meaningless.

Personal life

Delany is married to Catherine Fisher Delany, with whom he has two sons, Newman McMurray and James Chancellor who is a prominent member of TSBFC.

References

  1. ↑ "James E. Delany, Commissioner". Big Ten Conference. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
  2. ↑ Peter, Josh (2007-01-05). "Playoff plunderer". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
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