B1G Decisions

   In what seems like the never ending saga, the Big Ten Conference can't seem to decide how to proceed with fall sports, most importantly football. I say most importantly because football pays for everything. The will they or won't they of the last 3 weeks of the B1G playing football is taken straight from a prime time television show. One week it's spring, then it's January 1st, then it's Thanksgiving, now this week it's October 17th and an announcement is coming. But the announcement never comes and twitter sources contradict each other, and what one person says is fact the other says is fiction. How did we come to this spot? Who is to blame? Did the B1G make the right decision? What is the right plan? I really haven't wanted to talk about this because it makes me sad and there is enough in this world right now that' sad so I don't want to be downer. That's why I've stuck to the fun stuff. These are my opinions on the subject at hand and those opinions have been fluid since mid-summer. I wish more people could have their opinions changed with new information, but we aren't conditioned that way, especially in the internet world, you have to take a stance and you aren't allowed to back off it. With college football vs Covid I've gone through many stages, and I may contradict myself even in this post, but I think each circumstance deserves a different solution.

When the B1G decided to postpone the season a few days after releasing a schedule the main question was why? This is where things took a turn for the conference and the reporting on the conference. The power structure of the B1G is much like professional sports. The Presidents/Chancellors are the equivalent of the owners, who select a commissioner. The commissioners job is to be the public voice of the conference. The B1G just hired a new commissioner last January, and he got thrown into a world that he isn't prepared for. Kevin Warren the commissioner is a lawyer, he was hired to negotiate the next TV deal for the B1G, he wasn't hired to shit in everyone's Cheerios and tell them their 12 Saturday's in the fall are ruined. Warren automatically became public enemy #1, but only because he was the messenger, and the message he was sending sucked for everyone. He is paid to be the voice of the conference, the face, so these presidents and chancellors don't have to be the ones taking the blame. Let's be clear, it was their decision, they voted 11-3 to cancel fall sports. Kevin Warren, the athletic directors, and football coaches had no say in the matter. Kevin Warren did screw up the process but it wasn't his fault. He could've tried to get the leaders to delay the start of the season, but he's new and has no equity built up, he was doing what he was told and that's the end of that. I think Kevin Warren is getting an unfair shake and hopefully he can get this thing going in the right direction soon.

This is strictly my opinion, but I think the B1G vote was strictly political. The states with democratic governors instructed their Presidents to vote against football. If you look at the 11-3 vote, with Nebraska/Iowa/Ohio State wanting to play, while everyone else said no you'll notice a trend. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania all tend to be swing states, that switch from red to blue and vice versa. Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota all blue states. Indiana not sure what happened there but perhaps since they have 2 schools they were trying to protect themselves. That is why the President got involved and why he hasn't gotten into the Pac 12. It's also why the other 3 conferences are playing. It's pretty simple when you think about it.

I'm still not sure if the B1G made the right choice to postpone. I think they had 6 months to figure out a plan and hoped things would fall their way and they didn't. I remember in March everyone thought a month without sports and we'll be back, fans will be back in the stands by the 4th of July and things will be groovy again. Well none of that happened, but we didn't know how this was going to go. The fact the virus became political only made things worse. Coming back in May became coming back in June which turned to July and so on. Then it's August and football is supposed to start in a month and nobody had a plan. The B1G says hey we can only control our schools so lets go conference only schedule, I loved the idea. B1G rolls out a schedule, brags about the flexibility in the schedule, if team A gets Covid, team B can play Team C this weekend and we'll switch their game with Team A. It looked great, then they cancel the season, which obviously the people who built the schedule weren't the one in charge of cancelling the season. The B1G being a little full of themselves think everyone will follow suit, much like the conference only schedule. But they didn't, thus making the B1G and Pac-12 looking scared, and the other 3 P5's looking strong. Now I understand not everyone feels this way, many of you think the B1G made the proper decision, the problem is, the voices on twitter were loud and proud that the B1G was making a mistake. I for one thought the decision was ok, and that the other conferences would never play, there would be outbreaks on campus and schools would cancel games. Well we're heading into week 3 of college football and things are rolling just fine* (for 95% of the time, just like MLB, most of the games are going off without a hitch).

My mind started to change once kids started to come to campus. If these schools are so worried about health that athletes can't play sports than why can they bring thousands of kids to these college towns, force them to live on top of each other just so the university can make some extra bucks by forcing you to attend one class in person. This is a contradiction in philosophy. When the athletes were on campus alone things were fine, then the students showed up and Covid cases spiked. If you actually cared about the athletes than you would've let the students stay home learn online and let the athletes stay on campus and compete. Now the optics of that look bad, BUT the optics of your greed while cancelling sports looks worse. This is why I can't support postponing the season.

My last thing is the twitterverse and the back lash towards the media and the rumor mill. Twitter is full of rumors and honestly it's why I use the website. I have Facebook for my friends and twitter is my sports hub, I use twitter for baseball, NASCAR, and college football news. The rumors though on twitter these last couple weeks were insane and especially this last weekend, up until now when we're supposed to hear the announcement the B1G is back tonight, yet still nothing. The thing I think people get lost in is, when they want a rumor to be true they fall in love with it, and the person who said it. When someone says something they don't want to hear, they again rally against the messenger and not the message. If someone writes a news article and puts an opinion in it, than that's bad. But if someone writes a tweet with their opinion, that should be fine, it's what the website is for, opinions. Just because a reporter works for someone doesn't mean they aren't entitled to their opinion and if their opinion doesn't jive with yours doesn't give you free reign to target them with abuse. If people could just be civil on the socials this entire situation would be easier to handle.

That's all for this week, stay tuned because if some huge NASCAR news happens I may have to write another post. Plus who knows how long before the B1G changes their minds again.