Report: Big Ten hires first African-American Power 5 commissioner to replace Jim Delany
Jim Delany is retiring as the commissioner of the Big Ten this summer after a long tenure at the helm of one of the top Power 5 conferences.
The conference is expected to announce its new commissioner on Tuesday morning, but on Monday night, reports surfaced of just who that might be.
Per Mully and Haugh, a morning show on 670 The Score, and confirmed by others, Minnesota Vikings COO Kevin Warren will take the job:
The Big Ten Conference is expected to name Kevin Warren to replace Jim Delany as Big Ten Commissioner tomorrow morning. Warren, 55, is the Chief Operating Officer of the Minnesota Vikings, the highest-ranking African-American executive on the business side of any NFL team.
— Mully And Haugh (@mullyhaugh) June 4, 2019
Minnesota Vikings’ chief operating officer Kevin Warren is expected to be introduced Tuesday as the next commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, sources told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and me. Warren, 55, would become the first African-American commissioner of a Power Five conference.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 4, 2019
Warren will become the first-ever African-American Power 5 commissioner, leaving a position in which he was the highest-ranking African-American business executive in the NFL.
Warren has been with the Vikings since 2005. Prior to that, he worked with the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams.
