Posted on 08/21/2020 11:28:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Big Ten circus is an unmitigated PR disaster with a leader who wants to hide in the corner without suffering from the consequences of a premature decision.
After a sudden and unpredictable shift in optimism within 72 hours, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren canceled football, with little evidence to back up his decision. Now parents of affected students are demanding justification as to why Warren reached this verdict.
After Dr. Venk Murthy, a University of Michigan cardiologist, questioned the evidence the Big Ten used to cancel its season, parents of Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa football players have submitted a letter to the Division I conference. In it, parents demanded the conference reverse course and play the 2020 season. The letter advocates for full transparency about the data that led to the decision, reinstatement of the original schedule the league released Aug. 5, and a call with Warren.
These parents have every right to ask questions, especially since Warren’s own son is set to play a full slate of games this fall at Mississippi State. Warren is effectively telling parents he believes it’s too risky for players of his own conference to play football this fall but perfectly safe for his own son to continue his NCAA career. Parents aren’t buying it.
All players want is the option to decide their own fates, the same option the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 are giving their players. It’s no surprise the reaction from Big Ten players was swift. Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has created a petition, which had more than 200,000 signatures in less than 24 hours, requesting the Big Ten immediately reinstate the 2020 season.
If Fields were smart, he would realize the #WeWantToPlay movement isn’t enough to persuade the Big Ten to have a season. No number of waivers can convince university presidents to redirect on a football season, which has been about restricting player empowerment from the get-go. These presidents have secured the moral high ground using questionable medical research with the help of a willing media.
What will change the momentum of this conversation, however, is putting presidents on the defensive over denying minority opportunity. Athletes making this about a lack of economic opportunities, especially for minority players, is something no college president wants to push back on.
Football is a great equalizer. It provides opportunities, especially for young minorities looking to change their family trajectory, to attend college at greatly reduced cost. After graduation, college football provides opportunity in the business world as well as the financial and medical fields. No president wants to be seen as suppressing minority opportunities, and players such as Fields spinning the argument this way could change the discussion.
Fields should repeatedly make the point about how canceling sports disenfranchises minority student athletes. If white activist students can gather in large settings on campus, football players should be able to play a game that provides economic and social opportunity.
The Big Ten circus and its ringleader Warren are anything but the greatest show right now. They’re an unmitigated PR disaster with a leader who wants to hide in the corner without suffering from any of the consequences of a premature decision.
Meanwhile, the SEC announced Tuesday it’s planning not only to play but to allow fans in the stands. In Ohio this week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state is moving forward with all high school sports.
Ohio State’s football team physician, Dr. James Borchers of the Wexner Medical Center, was one of the main medical health experts from whom the state sought advice. As of today in Ohio, high school football is allowed, NFL football is allowed, and even the University of Cincinnati Bearcats can play — but not Ohio State University. If it’s safe enough in Ohio for the NFL to play, it should be safe enough for any football team with the proper health protocols in place.
This absurd logic has allowed multiple Big Ten campuses to reopen, along with cafeterias, dorms, and even intramural sports at Michigan State University. Somehow, that same logic won’t allow competitive football games in a conference with standardized, COVID-19 testing protocols for freakishly healthy 18- to 22-year-old men. It’s time for the media to start asking what the Big Ten is thinking.
The Big Ten dumpster fire continued to get hotter this week when Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour spoke publicly. “It’s unclear to me whether there was a vote or not,” Barbour said, concerning a formal vote among presidents and chancellors. “No one’s ever told me there was.”
With the new details emerging over the weekend about an FDA-approved, rapid saliva test for COVID-19, which could be a game-changer for the Big Ten and Pac-12, it is even more critical that coaches, players, and parents have a fair and open discussion instead of a rushed and one-sided decision. According to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, these tests are more rapid and have more accuracy than the standard nasal swab tests. If this test lives up to the hype, the Big Ten and Pac-12 should reverse course.
You probably never thought the biggest advocate for the Big Ten having a season would be a former SEC quarterback — but then again, this year is mad.
Just have your kid take his SAT score to some other football power school, and apply for admittance.
God forbid these privileged kids have to get a real job.
Cry me a river ‘parents’.
Universities are run by liberals. Liberals would cut off their right arm to get rid of the orange man. Apparently the SEC athletic departments have more clout than the oh so woke Big (10, 12, 14, 16 and counting).
African-Americans need to suck it up, if #BadOrangeMan is to be removed from office.
BIG TEN, BIG 12, BIG BROTHER, BIG PSYOPS, BIG INTEL, BIG PHARMA, BIG GOV, BIG ELITES, BIG BUSINESS, BIG PSYCHOS BIG EUGENICISTS...DO NOT CARE. PERIOD. Did your hear that? PERIOD.
THINK...like THEM for a moment...if you can. We the people are “vast right-wing conspirators”, “bitter clingers”, “deplorables”, “dog-faced pony soldiers”, “non-essentials”
DROP the DISS. DROP the DISTRACTIONS. WITNESS our DYSTOPIAN future. SEE/HEAR the daily DISSONANCE.
2020 see clearly.
Blacks need to get unhooked on spectator sports as a means of advancement, but they closing the season to please Fauci, not because it’s needed.
Yup!
You mean college is about.....going to classes and studying?! And those "testy" things - we ACTUALLY have to take and pass them?
Come on! I am an athlete!!!
Past time for serious universities that are really into education, which I suspect are probably counted on one hand, to end athletics which are simply BLM professional sports farm teams. Let the NBA/NHL/NFL have their own A, AA, AAA farm teams. These “college” players are not students anyway.
All div 1 schools have set up the football program to function as follows
1 offensive squad
2 defensive squad
3 classroom attendance squad
I read 24 of 25 of states with GOP governors are going to play high school football. Only GOP state not laying is Hogan in MD. 15 of 24 states with Dem governors are not playing. My numbers might be off a bit there but it proves this is political in nature.
First year Big 10 Commissioner Kevin Warren is a Far Left Wing Liberal Democrat - read some of his posts on Yahoo. Once President Trump supported playing the season, Warren pulled the plug.
Now Warren is blaming the Lawyers for cancelling the season. The Big 10 made a huge mistake hiring this guy.
I have no obligation to support a BLM member because he can run and jump.
it’s because these parents know that little D’whatyoucallhim won’t make it in the real world
life is all about choices. Choosing to accept the bribes offered by the big 10 schools was a mistake
learn to code
Poor kids can stand in line behind all the other lives devastated in 2020
Prospects for what?
Warren is doing what the presidents of the B10 universities want, he isn't acting on his own. Not that he isn't a lefty, Trump hater, but he's a message boy in this instance.
Please, please let my son go out and get his knees and bones shattered on the one in a million chance he can get a pro contract and injure himself for life.
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