The lack of transparency surrounding the Big Ten decision to cancel fall sports is starting to get ridiculous. When the decision was officially made a week ago, the story circling from multiple sources was that Big Ten presidents and chancellors met with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren and voted against having a 2020 fall season.
New information has since surfaced from The Athletic writer Nicole Auerbach, among other college football insiders, to suggest that maybe no vote ever actually took place.
PSU AD Sandy Barbour said, though she isn't sure about if there was actually a formal vote, every president came out of the meeting and told his/her athletic director that "that was the decision."
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) August 17, 2020
According to Auerbach’s tweet, the lack of transparency is not only between the public and the conference, but even amongst the conference officials themselves. Penn State’s AD Sandy Barbour did not know whether or not her own president had voted on the decision. From what we know about the interactions between AD’s and presidents, there was no discussion of a voting breakdown, no discussion of who made the final decision, and no discussion of which schools wanted to play and which did not. Obviously there could be much more that AD’s and presidents know that has not been shared, but at the moment the public is left to guess how the meeting went down and who had the final say.
Jeff Wald of the local Minnesota Fox station reported that Minnesota President Joan Gabel would not even call it a vote:
University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel said last week she wouldn't call it a vote per se.
She called it, "a deliberative process where we came to a decision together" and supported the decision to postpone the season. #Gophers #B1G https://t.co/bePIxX4J2D
— Jeff Wald (@JeffWaldFox9) August 17, 2020
In the past week, we have seen reports shift from a solidified vote, to a vote that took place at a later date than originally reported, to no actual vote at all. One thing we do know is that the lack of transparency only makes this decision more difficult for athletes, coaches, parents, and everybody involved in Big Ten fall sports to stomach. Clear answers are needed from the top, and they had better come fast.