Big Ten Hires Tony Petitti as New Commissioner

Petitti succeeds Kevin Warren as Chicago Bears president

ROSEMONT, Illinois — The Big Ten have chosen who will be the next Commissioner of the Conference.

According to ESPN Pete TamelThe conference will recruit Tony Petitti, a former senior executive at Major League Baseball, MLB Network, ABC, CBS Sports, and more.

With the Big Ten set to set out, comes the move to go with Petitti New multi-billion dollar media dealthe conference will receive significantly increased coverage and revenue in the ever-changing landscape of college sports.

Petitti attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania and majored in economics before graduating from Harvard Law School. After working at the law firm for two years, Petitti joined ABC Sports in 1988 as a general counsel.

From there he was promoted to Vice President of Programming before joining CBS Sports in 1997 and holding various senior management positions until leaving CBS in April 2008 to become head of the MLB network.

After seven years as leader of MLB Network, Petiti succeeded Rob Manfred as Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball in 2015.

According to Thamel, Petitti is currently co-CEO of The 33rd Team, a semi-football think tank and media organization founded by Mike Tannenbaum.

The man Petitti is replacing — Kevin Warren — has notified the Big Ten that he will be leaving in early-mid-January. Work as President and CEO of the Chicago Bears The Organization will begin on April 17th.