Everyone’s favorite conference commissioner thinks student-athletes not getting paid is so unfair… to the schools.
“I think we ought to work awful hard with the NFL and the NBA to create an opportunity for those folks. We have it in baseball, we have it in golf, works pretty good, we have it in golf, we have it in hockey. Why don’t we have it in football, basketball? Why is it our job to be minor leagues for professional sports?”
Well, Jimbo, you gotta admit you’re getting paid pretty well for that job.
Delany’s not stupid, just cynical. He knows exactly why things are the way they are with the NFL and NBA. And he also knows that he can work as hard as he wants to with them and it won’t change anything.
But it does give him a handy excuse to hold off on change at the college level, too – “Fellas, be patient. We’re talking to the NFL and NBA about changing the status quo, but you know these things take time.”
He’s just trying to be helpful.
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UPDATE: As you might expect, John Infante has some chioce thoughts about Delany’s comments.
Get The Picture 
Anyone with a FGOTO (Fantastic Grasp of the Obvious) knows Jimmie D. is a Jackass…
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Dear Jim,
Go back to the winged-T, flag football rules with no contact, eliminate all the training, nutrition, etc. You’ll save money and force the NFL to develop it’s own talent since you won’t be anymore. There, problem solved.
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In any area in life that involves some exchange, some folks involve usually ask “What is it for me?”.
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“awful hard”? I thought The Big Ten was an academic conference and here, their commissioner can’t even properly use an adverb. Maybe they should start recruiting defensive ends with similar grammatical shortcomings. Then they could compete with SEC and Pac 12 speed.
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Today’s artillery fire to soften up the enemy in advance of the September 25 Management Committee meeting in Jim’s B1G conference room features a continuation of
“Fear mongering narratives and Jim Delany.”
“Delany has propped up the Big Ten on a whole erroneous construct and used it to bilk the fans of more and more money. That money has been siphoned straight into the coffers of a select few and any threat to that exploitative system, any attempt at some sort of social justice, is met with threats. “Fear us, we give you your Saturday diversions and we will take them away.” (h/t Moneyfire Mar 19, 2013)
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