CHICAGO -- The Big Ten's annual joint group meetings are under way as men's basketball coaches, athletic directors and others gathered Monday afternoon.
The portion of the ADs' meetings most relevant to the Big Ten football blog take place Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'll have much more coverage on those days. Groups of athletic directors are scheduled to meet with media members both days, and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany will make an appearance Wednesday afternoon.
A few quick notes from Day 1:
The Big Ten's bowl lineup will be changing beginning in 2014, and colleague Brett McMurphy has some more details here. McMurphy reports that the Big Ten and ACC will share tie-ins with the Gator Bowl and Music City Bowl during a six-year agreement, so three Big Ten teams would go to Jacksonville and three to Nashville in the span. They'll face SEC opponents in both games. The Big Ten had a tie-in with the Music City Bowl from 2002-2005. As ESPN.com reported earlier, an ACC team could replace a Big Ten team in the Capital One Bowl when a Big Ten team makes the Orange Bowl. Other bowls the Big Ten could add to the lineup include Pinstripe (against ACC) and Holiday (against Pac-12). Don't expect the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas to be part of the next Big Ten bowl lineup.
All 12 current Big Ten athletic directors are here along with Maryland AD Kevin Anderson, whose program joins the conference in 2014. Rutgers has yet to hire an athletic director to replace the ousted Tim Pernetti, although The Star-Ledger reports that the pool is down to two candidates: Wisconsin deputy athletic director Sean Frazier and Louisville senior associate athletic director Julie Hermann. A decision is expected later this week. Frazier has been with Wisconsin since 2007 and became deputy AD in 2011 after Shawn Eichorst left for the top job at Miami. Eichorst is now AD at Nebraska.
The Big Ten will move its spring meetings to its new office beginning in 2014. Coaches from football, men's basketball and women's basketball will attend on a rotation basis. Since men's basketball coaches are here this year, football coaches or women's basketball coaches will attend next year's event.