Insider Dan Wetzel slams Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti for lack of leadership amid House v. NCAA buzz

Following the approval of House v NCAA settlement by judge Claudia Wilken last Friday, Tony Petitti, the commissioner of the Big Ten conference, has remained silent.

The settlement is a seismic shift in the landscape of college athletics, which will allow schools to directly pay their athletes. With changes like these happening, one might expect a figurehead like Petitti to comment on the new direction of college sports.

However, his lack of a clear stance has been glaring to many, including Dan Wetzel, a senior writer at ESPN, who questioned Petitti's silence, on The Paul Finebaum Show.

"I don’t know why Tony Petitti doesn’t talk,” Wetzel said, per ESPN. "You’d have to ask the Big Ten that or Tony Petitti if you do get him to talk. Again, I don’t know what he’s thinking or what he’s planning. This isn’t a negative. I just think that this is not a traditional business.

"No one knows what’s going on. So I think when you’re one of the two most powerful people and you’re running a league that, more than anyone with their conference realignment, has destabilized the entire sport ... you should be talking to the media. You should be talking to the fans. It doesn’t have to be media, you could get on there and do different ways to communicate with the fans. I do think that’s important."

Wetzel compared the current situation in the NCAA with the NFL and NBA, saying that in those leagues, there's a greater sense of stability, while in college sports, the future is far less certain, so leaders like Petitti should communicate with fans.

The House v NCAA settlement is not the only thing Petitti has been quiet about of late. The issues surrounding the transfer portal and NIL are also topics that could benefit from his input.

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Tony Petitti shares Big Ten's approach to athlete revenue sharing policies

Among the many changes proposed in the House v. NCAA settlement, schools can now share up to $20.5 million with their athletes — with each sports program receiving a different portion of the revenue.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti addressed the matter in a press conference on Monday, joined by commissioners from the ACC, SEC and Big 12.

"In the Big Ten, we’re focused on local decision-making, he said. "We’ve had numerous conversations about the way to address the question you’re raising and the decision was made fairly early on that we’d be in a local decision-making (situation)."

Petitti added that Big Ten athletic directors want discretion with the revenue distribution process.