Why the Big Ten’s fumbling of fall football is Notre Dame’s gain

Seeing the Big Ten go back and forth on a fall football season is beneficial to the Fighting Irish. Find out why.

First year commissioner Kevin Warren has seen the good and bad of being a major conference commish. He was applauded when the Big Ten was one of the first conferences to cancel their basketball tournament, acting swiftly in the midst of a global pandemic. Warren did not allow fans for the games played and Mark Emmett, the NCAA President, would later that Thursday cancel all NCAA games going forward.

At this point in time it looked like the conference was in good hands, but that would soon change as time went by. Warren was very cautious to bring sports back to his conference, as the NCAA would continue their interruption of athletics due to COVID-19. Warren kept putting some doubt on a season, always having a caveat of “if we will have sports in the fall.” It seemed like he was hell bent on being overtly cautious with athletics going forward.

When Warren announced the cancelation of non-conference games, he told Mike Hall in an interview on the Big Ten Network that “this decision would allow us to, one, do the right thing by our student-athletes, keep them at the forefront of all of our decisions, and make sure we create an environment to give us the best chance to play.”

They were never given that chance, as Warren would later go to a ten game schedule along with a championship game. Less than a week later and the day before Warren would announce the cancelation of his conferences play, rumors swirled that they would do just so. Or they wouldn’t. Conflicting reports of what the Big Ten would do flooded the web, as they claimed no vote to cancel the season had taken place. Warren would then announce the next morning the conference fall sports season was “postponed” not canceled. The Pac-12 would follow, but their commissioner, Larry Scott, come out with a strong statement and nobody questioned their decision.

Immediate reactions from players, their parents, coaches and fans wondered why the Big Ten had made this decision. Warren kept citing uncertainty as he once again spoke with Hall, becoming the first conference in the country to do so. Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields set up a petition to try and get the conference to play in the fall, stars like Penn State linebacker Micah Parson, Purdue’s Rondale Moore and Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman opted out of a potential spring season. Parents would march to protest the decision at the Big Ten offices in suburban Chicago, later establishing the Big Ten Parents United group that will continued their efforts to get football back to the spring. Yesterday, 8 Nebraska players decided to sue the conference over the decision to not play in the fall.

Today, more rumors surfaced that the conference could play fall football once again, looking the the fools of major college football. The back and forth really showed a lack of leadership which reflects directly on Warren, although in his first year, big decisions like this are the norm for major college commissioners.

How does this help the Irish you ask? Well, elite college football teams are built on recruiting and Notre Dame is smack dab in the middle of the Big Ten footprint. Brian Kelly has a national reach, but with plenty of Midwest talent, the Big Ten’s collective fumbling of spring football should be Notre Dame’s gain. They might not reap the benefit’s right away, but the lack of leadership will eventually bite them in the ass. Since the Big Ten has looked like a clown conference, Notre Dame has gotten commits from: Rocco Spindler of Michigan, Mitchell Evans from Ohio, flipped California’s Will Schweitzer from Nebraska, and Minnesota’s Joe Alt in the 2021 class. Instate Joey Tanona and Nolan Ziegler from Michigan committed in the ’22 class, all of these prospects holding Big Ten offers.

The willingness of Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick to act swiftly to join the ACC for a season showed that the Irish meant business. They want to play college football, we want to watch college football. Flexibility with the ACC has proven to be extremely beneficial, even if for just one year on the gridiron. Notre Dame showed their athletes, perspective one’s too, that they will do what’s best for them, now and in the future.