Earlier this morning, a group of Big Ten parents representing a myriad of schools within the conference, including Wisconsin, met outside the Big Ten offices in Illinois to protest the cancellation of the fall season.
On the surface, it may have appeared as though the gathering had the sole intention of bringing fall sports back for the fall semester, but a leader of the parent group Randy Wade, the father of OSU CB Shaun Wade, had a different message.
“The reason we’re here is that we want to have conversations,” Wade, the father of Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade, told reporters gathered at the protest. “It’s simple. We want to play in the fall, but regardless of the fall, we want to have conversations in the spring.”
There were many different schools represented, including the Badgers as Dorian Davis, the father of Wisconsin RB Julius Davis, participated in the protest.
The message was less about pressuring the conference to reinstate the fall sports season, and more about communication. There were multiple speakers who felt it was vehemently unfair that their children and parents themselves were not included in a decision that so directly affects them. The lack of information and transparency really bothered parents from around the conference.
“These kids have virtually self-quarantined for three months and worked their tails off and done everything the NCAA and the university have asked them to do,” said Jeff Borland, the father of Ohio State LB Tuf Borland. “To have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last minute with really no additional information is really a shame.”
According to Ryan Glasspiegel of OutKick, who was on hand in Illinois, protestors were being kept off of Big Ten property by police and there has yet to be any meeting between Big Ten officials and parents.
Although all the parents are asking for is an open dialogue and conversation surrounding a difficult issue, the Big Ten has not yet provided additional information since Commissioner Kevin Warren released his later a few days ago.