He said, she said. We said, they said. Nobody said.
No, it’s not Doctor Seus you are reading but the current state of the drama going on with the Big Ten. The league pulled the plug on the season ahead of any of the Power Five conferences, and now the discontent has the conference burning from the inside.
From parent revolts to online petitions, to quotes about miscommunication and lack of unity, the SEC, Big 12, and ACC have their popcorn out — all while making a movie of their own — forging ahead with the season.
And now this.
According to a report from Wolverines Digest, after all of the pushback, and the three of the Power Five conferences still planning on starting the season, if a vote were held today, the Big Ten would not cancel fall football for 2020 with hopes of playing in the spring.
Per sources in the league, the Big Ten really felt that if it pulled the plug first, the Pac-12 would quickly follow after. From there, the ACC would cave followed by the Big 12. And once all of that occurred, the SEC’s play at all costs mentality would be forced to make the same decision because there would be nothing to purchase if you will.
Well the first two parts worked to perfection, but then Notre Dame threw a monkey wrench into the quest for college football world domination by getting on board with the ACC — even potentially conceding some things in the future — to play the fall. From there the Big 12 and SEC stayed with the Axis Powers rather than the allies and what resulted was uncontrolled and unfettered chaos.
“Notre Dame really wanted to play and was willing to enter into an agreement that could lead to something down the road … at the very least, more games every year against ACC teams,” an insider told Wolverines Digest. “They’re adamance about playing was the ace-in-the-hole a group, led by Clemson, needed to really push for a season and turn the tide in favor of ignoring the Big Ten.”
“I mean, if Notre Dame, with their academic reputation and their national brand, was willing to go forward … it sort of just sealed the ACC’s fate.”
Can Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren last through the year? https://t.co/Z6E9IWluJf via @buckeyeswire
— Buckeyes Wire (@BuckeyesWire) August 25, 2020
And that’s where we are today.
The Big Ten and it’s arrogance thought it could set the price of tea in China but was living on an island in the South Pacific with the Pac-12. The conference severely miscalculated the feelings of discord among its members, fans, student-athletes, and yes — even administrators. In a lot of ways, it was the perfect storm of having a brand new commissioner looking to make a splash and not understanding the gravity of it all.
“I don’t want to call it arrogance but there was a surprising lack of awareness from the presidents that there would be such significant pushback when they voted to postpone the 2020 season,” a source in Big Ten HQ shared with Wolverines Digest. “I think you also have [Commissioner] Kevin Warren who is so eager to please his bosses still early in his tenure that he just sort of went along with them, without really being an advocate for the athletic directors and the football programs. ”
“It was like he didn’t know where his loyalties lie – is it with the presidents or is it with the ADs, coaches and players? In theory, all of those entities should be pulling in the same direction but there was, as we’ve all seen, incredible disconnect between the philosophies of the presidents and that of their coaches and athletes and, in some cases, athletic directors.”
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There you have it. With the benefit of hindsight, or with some forward-thinking about how much college football means to the Midwest, or — the ability to have a better-defined plan and communication, all of this would have gone down differently.
“We’ve already seen a university like Nebraska, which from top-down took issue with postponing the season but eventually gave in, and now there are five, six, seven universities on any given day that would have voted differently if the vote was being held two weeks later,” said a Wolverines Digest source.
At this point, we’d say there’s nothing that can be done now, but that wouldn’t be true. The Big Ten could get on a plan somewhere around — yesterday, figure this thing out and either plan for a late fall or early winter season. At the very least, spring has to be on the table now with all that’s gone on, or so you would think.
But yet, here we are waiting for further information to come out and the sands of the hourglass continue to empty on the future of playing any football at all for the Big Ten.
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