Let me preface this by saying that I feel awful for the student-athletes that lose a football season, some the last they were ever supposed to play, with almost half of college football calling off the 2020 season and I feel bad for the coaches who don’t get to spend the fall game-planning as well.
But I don’t feel sorry for the Big Ten, specifically those in the most power of the conference.
Ari Wasserman does a great job covering college football for The Athletic. So great in fact that he just received a well-deserved promotion in becoming their national college football recruiting reporter.
But.
There’s always a but.
His suggestion that those who didn’t prematurely cancel college football for 2020 couldn’t possibly be a worse thought.
Wouldn't the SEC/ACC/Big 12 fans rather start a few weeks later and get back on same page with Big Ten and (presumably) Pac-12?
One season starting at Thanksgiving, push back the CFP and make the recruiting calendar all in sync.
Then all of us get that CFB buzz back TOGETHER!
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) August 28, 2020
Wasserman is certainly right that it would be better if all teams and conferences were included, certainly.
But it’d also be better if the world was empty of hate, if everyday was 75 degrees and sunny with a very slight breeze and if your childhood pet lived forever.
Unfortunately that isn’t the case for any of those.
Let’s start by recognizing that if something doesn’t ever leave then it is impossible for it to come back.
If I never leave my house to go to the office then I can’t possibly come back home from being at the office. Simple enough, right?
College football, for 76 of 130 FBS programs, was never canceled. Perhaps delayed a couple of weeks but it was never called off. In other words – college football never left, only certain conferences and teams did.
The Big Ten felt the need to try and force the hands of the other Power Five conferences to join them in calling football season off. God forbid the others think on their own (save the Pac-12) and figure out a way to salvage the season.
If I decide on my own that I’m going to show up for work late on Monday and not be present for my first meeting, do I just get to tell my boss to hold up and wait for me until I’m ready for it to get started?
If my best friend is getting married and I decide to leave my house late to get to the chapel, when I walk in after his bride has already walked down the aisle do I get to push open the doors and demand the restart the entire service?
The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren were the ones that rushed to a decision while business owners in college towns nationwide wondered to even a greater extent how they’ll survive this fall.
The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren felt the need to be first to cancel out of conference games, which forced the MAC’s hand and then first to call off the entire 2020 season.
The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren made those decisions almost a month before the season was scheduled to kickoff and thought because they’re the Big Ten, that everyone else would just follow their lead.
Again, this flat out sucks for the student athletes it effects, especially those who won’t have a senior season as a result. The best thing I can say to them is that it’s not their fault and hope their respective conferences can get their acts together sooner rather than later.
The Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West all made theses beds.
Sure, it was the University presidents and not those in the athletic departments making those calls in several cases, but these decisions were made unnecessarily early.
Just over a week ago Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren doubled down on the conference’s decision, saying their postponement of fall sports “will not be revisited”.
Nobody told the Big Ten University presidents that a decision had to be made on August 11.
Nobody told the Pac-12 that they had to follow suit just hours after the Big Ten made their announcement.
The Big Ten presidents and Kevin Warren made their bed.
As did those in the Pac-12.
Now it’s not the ACC, Big 12, SEC, AAC, Conference USA or Sun Belt’s responsibility to have to sleep in it.