In deciding to play football, Warren and the Big Ten are listening to politicians, one in particular
Stunning reversal to start 2020 season on Oct. 24 comes two weeks after President Trump tweeted that the Big Ten's "ball is on the one-yard line!"
A little over a month ago, first-year Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren announced that the league was shutting down fall sports over its concerns about the spread and long-term effects of the coronavirus.
Warren was widely criticized, but I thought it was the right move by the president and chancellors of the 14 member schools to protect college athletes who are not being compensated as in the professional leagues.
On Wednesday, what was reported back in August as an 11-3 vote by the Big Ten’s institutions against playing had miraculously turned into unanimous approval to begin the conference’s 2020 football season on Oct. 24.
“Our focus with the Task Force over the last six weeks was to ensure the health and safety of our student-athletes. Our goal has always been to return to competition so all student-athletes can realize their dream of competing in the sports they love,” Warren said in a statement.
(Courtesy of the Big Ten Conference)
If only the same kind of “miracle” President Trump predicted back in March about how COVID-19 would disappear with warmer weather had actually happened - before killing over 190,000 Americans to date - it might have prevented Warren from risking his own reputation and potentially the health of some of the league’s athletes.
In the statement, Warren and others involved in the Big Ten’s decision to play talked about how the ability to administer daily antigen tests will help mitigate the need for contact tracing and potential spread. They also talked about getting updated data regarding how COVID-19 causes heart problems, specifically myocarditis.
“Everyone associated with the Big Ten should be very proud of the groundbreaking steps that are now being taken to better protect the health and safety of the student-athletes and surrounding communities,” said Dr. Jim Borchers, Ohio State’s team physician.
Borchers, the co-chair of the conference’s Return to Competition Task Force medical subcommittee, went on to say that the data collected through the testing of players for COVID-19 will help “mitigate the spread of the disease among wider communities.”
Sounds to me like the Big Ten is looking as this as some sort of clinical trial. Will the Big Ten shut down its season, even briefly, if one player tests positive, as Astrazeneca did with its coronavirus vaccine trial after one of its participants complained of back pain?
In truth the focus since the Big Ten made its initial decision not to play - with hopes that the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 would follow suit - was how to save the athletic departments in its member schools from going belly-up amid financial losses in the hundreds of millions.
Given how Warren and the Big Ten presidents seem to have caved amid the political pressure applied by President Trump and others, it might be appropriate for the Chicago-based league to move its headquarters to somewhere in the South for the 2020 college football season.
Actually, anywhere in the South. Maybe Warren can sign that iconic Southern fine dining establishment - Waffle House - as a title sponsor for the league’s championship game on Dec. 19.
Ever since President Trump tweeted on Sept. 1 that he had a “productive” conversation with Warren and that the “ball was on the one-yard line!”, it seems as if the Big Ten has been moving steadily to finding a way to restart the season, sooner rather than later.
Though the ball didn’t appear to be near the goal line at that point, it certainly was moving close enough to the red zone to start churning rumors about the Big Ten presidents meeting to take a recast their votes, especially the 11 who reportedly have voted “Nay”.
The past two weeks have been complete chaos as to where all the institutions stood.
On his radio show a week ago, Dan Patrick said that as many as six teams, including Maryland, would likely opt out if the season were to begin in mid-October. By Monday, the certainty surrounding that number had dissipated to the point where Patrick said only Michigan seemed likely and there was great “optimism” with the league beginning play sometime next month.
In a Zoom call Monday with local reporters, Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank said that progress had been made since the league announced its shutdown on Aug. 11 and though no decision had been reached, all of the academic leaders throughout the league were in lockstep.
“We’re all going to move together in the Big Ten,” Blank said. “This isn’t going to be a school-by-school thing.”
Blank’s comments came as her own university had put nine off-campus fraternity and sorority houses, as well as two dormitories, on lockdown and had announced that the remainder of the students in Madison were restricted to “limited movement” for essential activities.
A quick question: if the members of the Wisconsin football team have to adhere to the same regulations, does that mean the Badgers are going to move into their practice facility 24/7 in order to get ready for the season?
Even with the ability to test players daily, it’s crazy that the Big Ten is reversing course so dramatically now when teams in other parts of the country are shutting down, at least temporarily, because of a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Virginia and Virginia Tech canceled their opening game Saturday because of a spike in Blacksburg that forced the Hokies to call off practice this week. Memphis has postponed Friday’s game against Houston for the same reason.
Since the Big Ten has no bye weeks in its eight or nine-game conference-only schedule, what are the chances that every team completes the season and has each school plays the same number of games?
Still, life goes on for many college football programs as if nothing has happened. Texas Tech played its opening game last week despite having as many as 75 players test positive since June, mainly because all but six have completely recovered.
The ACC and SEC are forging ahead with their plans to start the season despite the coronavirus curve not even thinking about flattening in the South. Only the Pac-12 is being cautious, mostly due to the fact that teams in California and Oregon can’t play because of state-mandated restrictions.
LSU coach Ed Orgeron said he thought most players on his reigning national championship team have been infected at one time or another. Still it won’t slow the Tigers down as they get ready for their Sept. 26 season opener against Mississippi State.
“Most of the players that have caught it we feel are going to be eligible for the game,” Orgeron said. “For the players who haven’t caught it, we talk to them about being very careful so they’re eligible for games.”
Orgeron talks as if his Tigers have suffered a rash of sprained ankles, not a disease that is ravaging our country and other parts of the world.
The Big Ten’s reversal is not the only stunning decision to impact the league. That came Monday, when Ohio State star Shaun Wade announced he had decided to follow teammate Wyatt Davis in opting out for the season.
While both players are considered potential first-round NFL picks in next year’s draft, Wade’s decision is more notable because his father, Randy Wade, led the parent protest at Big Ten headquarters outside Chicago last month.
I still believe that opting out is the best move for the Big Ten. Or consider moving its headquarters to the South, home of the Waffle House. And order a heaping bowl of Bert’s Chili on me.