Tag: Kevin Warren

Big Ten releases statement on the Nebraska lawsuit and how their decision was reached

After eight University of Nebraska football players sued the Big Ten last week over their decision to postpone the fall football season…

After eight University of Nebraska football players sued the Big Ten last week over their decision to postpone the fall football season the conference released a statement yesterday detailing their voting process and how they reached the decision.

The lawsuit listed the three following counts:

  • Wrongful interference with business expectations — that the season represents an opportunity for players to work towards a career in football and develop brands for name/image/likeness use later.
  • Breach of contract by not holding an actual vote within its Council of Presidents and Chancellors.
  • Declaratory judgment by either not actually voting on the decision or being unable to produce evidence of a vote.

Kevin Warren and the Big Ten, now, clearly cited that there was indeed a 11-3 vote in favor of postponement, a number “which far exceeds the 60% threshold required by the Big Ten By-Laws.”

This statement is one of the first from the conference since their decision that clearly cites how and why it was reached.

Many have criticized the conference for their lack of transparency this past month and even though it took a lawsuit to get this information out, at least fans, players and parents now know what went on during the conference’s meetings in early August.

Maybe knowing the “how” isn’t enough for those who still want to understand the “why,” but according to the statement the conference will “continue to be transparent as it actively considers options to get back to competition when it is safe to play.”

I’d agree that they haven’t been the least bit transparent leading up to yesterday, so maybe the word choice of “continue to be transparent” isn’t fitting. But at least the information is coming out and giving clarity to the current situation.

Report: President Trump called Kevin Warren to talk about ‘immediately starting up Big Ten football’

As if the Big Ten offseason couldn’t get any more interesting. According to a tweet this morning from President Trump himself, he called…

As if the Big Ten offseason couldn’t get any more interesting.

According to a tweet this morning from President Trump himself; he called Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren today to talk about “immediately starting up Big Ten football.”

This coming after the conference recently released documents detailing an 11-3 vote by the schools’ presidents to postpone the season during their meetings in early August.

As you remember correctly there was much discussion about whether there was a vote and how the decision was reached.

Warren and the conference have been adamant over the last couple days that the decision to postpone the season is final and they will “actively consider options to get back to competition when it is safe to play.”

We’ll never know the content of the call between President Trump and Warren. One thing that is clear through all of this, though, is that were the conference to revisit their decision it won’t be up to the commissioner whether they play or not.

It has been and always will be up to the schools’ presidents.

 

Watch: What did President Trump say about Big Ten football?

President Trump weighed in on the postponed Big Ten football season.

President Donald Trump was in Wisconsin Tuesday and he took the time to discuss the current situation with the Big Ten Conference and its postponed football season.

Trump said he had a call with Commissioner Kevin Warren and sounded optimistic.

According to Letterman Row, the White House reached out to Warren to set up the call.

The reaction?

A Big Ten football coach texted “Major Wow!!!!!!” to the Tribune.

 

Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa only three schools that did not vote to postpone Big Ten football season

Per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska were the only schools that voted against postponing the Big Ten football season.

According to a report from Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, only three schools voted against postponing the fall football season in the Big Ten. Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren said all along that the vote was overwhelming in favor of shelving the season, and that appears to be the case based on sources that spoke to Rittenberg. It all comes from a brief filed in court in response to the Nebraska players’ lawsuit against the league.

The only three schools that voted to move forward with the season were Ohio State, Nebraska, and Iowa reportedly. In case you were living under an epic-sized boulder, that should come as no surprise to anyone that has followed the drama and intrigue closely.

Rittenberg goes on to assert that the brief filed “targets ‘three incorrect and unsupportable assertions’ in the players’ lawsuit, mostly around the vote (it happened) and threshold for approval (60% according to bylaws, league got 78.6%). Also pushes back on claim that one study fueled postponement.”

Of course, the Big Ten will have to produce proof that all of this occurred if the case goes forward.

While this is all fine and good if it’s true, many will still ask why some of this information was not shared at the onset of the decision. If so much went into such an impactful and ground-shaking decision, why the lack of transparency?

Despite better communication and a solid, transparent process, there still would have been many calling for Big Ten football this fall. However, some of the criticism over how a decision was arrived at, and the perceived lack of leadership surrounding the communication could have been somewhat avoided.

Now I guess we’ll wait to see what happens next. We’ll have updates as more information becomes available, but as you know, court cases can bog down to almost a standstill. In other words, it could be a lot like watching a Michigan safety try to track down an Ohio State ball-carrier.

 

Don’t Feel Sorry for the Big Ten or Pac-12 Now

college football never left, only certain conferences and teams did

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.

 

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.

Michigan football parents eyeing local Big Ten protest

According to Michigan football DE Aidan Hutchinson, his mother is aiming to gather parents, players and fans to make their voices heard.

[jwplayer WN1qUCzS-XNcErKyb]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Look out Michigan football fans: a Big Ten protest may be coming near you, and it seems you’re invited.

Last Friday, a group of 30-something football parents gathered at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois to protest the conference’s lack of transparency in the postponement of the 2020 fall college football season, and Michigan had one representative in Melissa Hutchinson, mother of junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.

The Hutchinson family — Melissa, Aidan and father Chris, a former Wolverines standout defensive end himself — has been rather outspoken about the season postponement, especially as Chris, an ER doctor, has stated that the Big Ten’s claim that it’s unsafe for players to play in the current coronavirus atmosphere insufficient.

Now it seems that they’re working to get more than just parents and players involved.

Though the parents across the conference sent commissioner Kevin Warren a letter this week under the banner ‘Big Ten Parents United,’ the Hutchinsons aren’t stopping there. According to Aidan, Melissa is helping organize a broader protest on what would have been Michigan’s season opener on Sept. 5.

Details are still to be determined, however.

“I was talking to my mom and she’s organizing this protest, I believe, which would have been the date of our first game,” Hutchinson said. “I don’t know where it’s gonna be. Maybe by The Big House. I don’t think this has even been disclosed yet or brought up. She’s planning that. She wants fans to come, players. She wants to see how many parents will come. We want to plan this protest in order to shine some light upon this issue.”

[lawrence-related id=27569,27566,27553]

As far as what players and parents want, it’s not just a reversal on the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the fall season. They want to be a part of the conversation and they also want more transparency from the league.

Aidan says that right now, the voices of those affected most aren’t being heard or considered.

“As much as we want to make change and as much as we want to play, it won’t come down to us, sadly. It’s gonna come down to the commissioner and the presidents. It’s all just out of our hands. Whatever we say has such a little impact on the decisions that will be made by the commissioner and the presidents.”

[vertical-gallery id=27515]

Aidan Hutchinson: Kevin Warren’s decision ‘unfair’ when son gets to play

Given that the B1G commissioner got to sit down with his family and have a ‘difficult discussion,’ U-M’s DE feels cheated out of the same.

[jwplayer WN1qUCzS-XNcErKyb]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Some things about the Big Ten’s postponement of the 2020 college football season still aren’t sitting right with some of the players in the conference.

Michigan junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson has been quite outspoken — as has his father, Chris Hutchinson — about wanting to play and having desired a voice in the matter, which is something that commissioner Kevin Warren and the Big Ten presidents and chancellors didn’t give its athletic constituents.

Made all the worse, Warren’s son, Powers, is a tight end at Mississippi State — an SEC team that’s still intending to move forward with the fall season.

Hutchinson slammed Warren last week in an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith, to which, the Big Ten commissioner (essentially) replied in a discussion with The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.

“As a family, we’ve had many difficult discussions regarding this issue,” Warren said. “But the decisions we make in the Big Ten Conference we have to look at from a macro level. We need to focus on what’s right for our nearly 10,000 student-athletes at 14 institutions.”

For Hutchinson, that response continues to be rife with hypocrisy.

Given that Warren was able to sit down and have a ‘difficult discussion’ and still allow his son to play in another league is something that continues to not sit right with the Michigan legacy.

“It does bother me a lot,” Hutchinson said. “I think it’s very unfair. I heard his rebuttal in terms of that statement and I heard that he got to sit down with his son and have a really hard conversation with him about it.

“I wish I could have had that same conversation with my parents. But he made that decision for me. I think it’s a little unfair that his family got to talk about it and my family – I couldn’t even ask them because he made that decision for me.”

[lawrence-related id=27566,27563,27560]

Of course, it wasn’t Warren’s decision to cancel the SEC — he has control only over the Big Ten, and Powers is his own man. But, no matter how you slice it, given the lack of transparency that went into the conference’s decision to effectively cancel the fall season, it’s not a good look.

And that’s something that will continue to weigh on the promising edge defender’s mind as he sits home this fall on Saturdays.

[vertical-gallery id=27515]

Attorney Tom Mars working closely with Big Ten football parent movement

Buckeyes Wire has learned that multiple Big Ten parents and parent groups are using attorney Tom Mars to push the league for answers.

Ohio State and other Big Ten football parents are revolting, looking for answers, and they have apparently turned to a prominent, trusted force in attorney and collegiate player advocate Tom Mars.

If the name is familiar to Buckeye fans, it should be. Mars successfully represented Justin Fields’ appeal to the NCAA to be granted a waiver for immediate eligibility when he transferred from Georgia to Ohio State at the conclusion of the 2018 season. He also has assisted other high profile college athletes on similar matters, including Michigan’s Shea Patterson.

Big Ten parents’ courtship with Mars

Buckeyes Wire has learned that Mars has been approached by several different football parents and parent groups to provide guidance, support and leverage to help move the cause of transparency along. Though specific parents or parent groups were not confirmed by Mars because of client confidentiality, Mars said he is being leaned on heavily through a process that hopes to push the Big Ten into more cooperation and communication surrounding the league’s decision to postpone the fall football season.

“It started with a core group of parents who I agreed to help and it sort of expanded without my help to a larger group of people who probably see me as their lawyer, some of whom I’ve never even spoken with,” Mars told Buckeyes Wire.

Mars’ office has sent letters to all 13 public Big Ten institutions under each state’s Freedom of Information statutes, requesting detailed communications between the universities and Big Ten officials. Buckeyes Wire was able to obtain the letter sent to Ohio State, and an OSU spokesman confirmed receipt of the letter. Mars also told Buckeyes Wire that OSU acknowledged receipt of the letter to him via email and has communicated efforts to provide a response in a “reasonable amount of time,” as dedicated by Ohio’s open records law.

Mars’ bigger role and support for Big Ten parents

However, Buckeyes Wire also has learned that Mars has assisted in compiling some of the language in parent group letters to the Big Ten and conference Commissioner Kevin Warren. Mars did not explicitly confirm he had a hand in the #B1GParentsUnited letter sent by a coalition of Big Ten parents on Wednesday, but he said he has been influencing direction for the parents throughout this process.

“I do operate behind the scenes in pretty much everything that I’m working on, whether that be college sports or something else,” said Mars. “I cannot comment on that particular letter, but yes, I probably had some influence in the messaging and communications that come out of different groups.”

The Big Ten announced its decision to postpone fall sports on Aug. 11 amid concerns over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, the league has come under fire as three other Power Five conferences (SEC, Big 12 and ACC) have continued to work toward the start of their seasons. The Pac-12 is the only other Power Five conference that also has announced a shelving of the fall football season.

Buckeyes Wire reached out to the Big Ten for comment Wednesday evening but has not received an official reply.

The Big Ten’s subdued response

While caution over the safety of student-athletes amid a global pandemic is hardly anything to be critical of, many observers feel the Big Ten needs to provide answers. Some say they deserve answers because they are directly impacted by the conference’s decision, namely the parents of football players that don’t have much of a platform to speak out.

Much of the parents’ criticism involves a lack of transparency and communication in making a decision that has significant impacts on hundreds of athletes and their families. Whereas the Pac-12 revealed significant details regarding medical advice and other key decision points, the Big Ten has remained relatively silent and vague about what went into its decision-making process.

Many observers have questioned whether there was even an official vote to reach a consensus on the announced decision to pause athletic competition. Some have said the Big Ten severely underestimated the pushback that it has encountered and may regret its actions. In fact, some sources claim that if another vote were held today, the results would be much different.

Truth will come out

Now, all of those questions and notions are being pushed by Mars and parent groups. There may be pushback along the way, but Mars said he is confident the information eventually will have to be handed over. When it does, there’s going to be a lot of information out there for almost anyone to see — good, bad, or indifferent.

Buckeyes Wire had a wide-ranging conversation with Mars on these topics and will have more in the coming days, but there are still some questions that aren’t going to go away. Why do Kevin Warren and the Big Ten continue to remain fairly silent, and specifically what went into a vote to postpone the season? Furthermore, why aren’t there more details being provided?

That’s the gist of what Mars is hoping to bring to light in cooperation with the various parent groups, and this appears to be just the start of it.

“Never underestimate a mob of angry parents,” Mars said.

 

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.

We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.

Ohio State receives FOIA letter from well-known attorney and player advocate Tom Mars

Ohio State confirmed receipt of a letter from attorney Tom Mars requesting details around the Big Ten’s decision to postpone fall football.

It has been widely reported that several Freedom of Information Act Letters (FOIA) went out to Big Ten institutions requesting information and communications surrounding the league’s decision to postpone the fall football season. Those letters were drafted by well-known attorney and player advocate Tom Mars’ office and reportedly went to all thirteen public Big Ten members. Northwestern was excluded because they are not subject to open records law.

Buckeyes Wire has spoken to Mars and received confirmation that a letter was sent to Ohio State as a part of the effort for more transparency surrounding the decision and what types of communications went into such a monumental decision that affected so many.

“I can confirm that I’ve sent comprehensive FOIA requests to all Big 10 public universities (13) per rights afforded by the public records laws in eleven different states,” confirmed Mars in an email to Buckeyes Wire.

In response, a spokesman for Ohio State has confirmed the university received the letter from Mars’ office last Saturday. OSU also acknowledged receipt of the communication to Mars and is says it is working on a reply through email.

Buckeyes Wire is also in possession of the FOIA letter request that can be found in the below attachment.

Ohio State FOIA Request

The request is broad and detailed and is looking for all manners of communication that would have occurred between athletic director Gene Smith and president-elect Kristina Johnson with Big Ten representatives.

Under Ohio Open Records Law, OSU’s response falls under a rather ambiguous “reasonable period of time,” meaning it could be longer than other Big Ten schools and states that have a specific timeframe assigned their applicable legislation.

We’ll have much more on the status of all of this over the next few days.

[lawrence-related id=36104]

[lawrence-related id=36098]

[lawrence-related id=36094]

 

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.

We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.