More from the day the vaunted Big Ten became the SEC.

Two quick notes from the re-opening…

First, a chuckle.

A Big Ten president involved in the decision to resume the season tells @NBCNews, “President Trump had nothing to do with our decision and did not impact the deliberations. In fact, when his name came up, it was a negative because no one wanted this to be political.” https://t.co/pEQf7yT4xl

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) September 16, 2020

Dude, I’m afraid your “no one wanted this to be political” horse done left the barn a while ago.  But, sure, close that door now if it makes you feel better about yourself.

Two, a head shaker.

In today's presser, @thepeterwarren asked a question we've heard from many NU students (after admin said it wasn't safe for half the student body to come to campus): What would you say to non-athlete students who aren't getting the same testing as athletes?

Jim Phillips' answer: pic.twitter.com/5Su2qJcKbH

— Ella Brockway (@ellabrockway) September 16, 2020

“Of all the questions in the world, that certainly is one” is a helluva way to say, “hey, look we need the money, man”.  But it really is all they’ve got.

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UPDATE:  Gosh, you can just feel the moral struggle these great leaders are faced with.

Northwestern president Morton Shapiro on having athletic on campus without most of the students on campus: "I did grapple with that. End of the day, I found arguments of if we can do it safely, there's no reason not to go ahead and do it."

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 16, 2020

Tripping on the victory lap

Leave it to the White House not to be able to pat itself on the back and know its college football geography at the same time.

Big Ten football is BACK! 🏈 pic.twitter.com/bEYemfKqxm

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 16, 2020

Unless it turns out raiding the SEC for new members is part of the deal to re-open the Big Ten…

Overwrought

Hyperbole, anyone?

Note the date: 9/16/20, the day the vaunted Big Ten became the SEC. It choked. It got scared. It sold its soul for football. My @usatodaysports column on the darkest day in Big Ten history: https://t.co/uaWfgpgSqO

— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 16, 2020

The idea that any P5 conference just now in the year 2020 “sold its soul for football” is delusional to start with, but to pretend today is a bigger black eye for the Big Ten than Jerry Sandusky and the institutional coverup that enabled a serial child molester borders on the truly offensive.

Oh, and fuck you with the “became the SEC’ holier than thou crap.

The Big Ten returns.

Minds changed.

B1G news: Big Ten’s council of presidents & chancellors, based on new medical evidence, voted for Big Ten to play football starting Oct. 23-24, sources told @Stadium. Yahoo reported first. League schedule expected to culminate w/Dec. 19 B1G title game, source said

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 16, 2020

That works out to an eight-game schedule, if I’ve counted on my fingers correctly.  Which begs a couple of interesting questions…

First, will a conference playing fewer games get an equal shake with the selection committee?  Second, with almost no margin for error on the calendar, how soon does the Big Ten start lobbying the playoff folks to modify the 12/20 (the day after the B1G championship game) announcement of the CFP field?

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UPDATE:  One bright spot I don’t want to neglect…

🔸🔹 #Illini #Jointhefight #ILL pic.twitter.com/g2kQPzEuvT

— L U K E F O R D🇺🇸 (@lukeford82) September 16, 2020

“It’s light-years different than it was five weeks ago.”

Apparently, this is a thing now.

The Big Ten’s council of presidents and chancellors will meet Sunday to review the latest medical information and possibly vote again on when the fall football season can begin, sources told ESPN.

The medical subcommittee of the Big Ten’s return to competition task force met Saturday with a smaller group of eight presidents and chancellors, who pushed the process forward for a possible revote as early as Sunday.

Saturday’s presentation focused on the medical information, but Sunday’s meeting will broaden the focus to include how to start, when to start, and the medical thresholds that must be met in order to return. Specific return dates are expected to be discussed, according to a source.

Six votes need to change from the initial 11-3 vote in order for the conference to proceed with plans to start a 2020 season.  I doubt they’d be planning something like this without a decent indication that minds have been changed.  But the logistics still sound like a bitch ($$).

… But multiple programs face obstacles, including Wisconsin, which announced on Thursday that its football program would pause athletic activities for two weeks due to its positive tests. That means the Badgers won’t be able to practice until Sept. 24 at the earliest. All of Maryland’s athletics activities are currently suspended as well. Penn State this week paused workouts for several unspecified teams.

All of which leads to a distinct possibility of half a loaf.

If the presidents vote to start the fall football season, the earliest time frame for kickoff would be mid-to-late October. A key factor is how quickly the conference determines a testing agreement and when supplies can be in place. Sources said it’s also possible not all Big Ten schools choose to play a fall season.

I’m not sure any of that matters, because the whole thing sounds like a delivery system to get Ohio State into the CFP picture.  How that’s gonna work when the Big Ten plays fewer games than the ACC, Big 12 and SEC is a problem to be whined about down the road, I guess.

Oh, yeah — speaking of matters that are light-years different than before, here’s one that’s not.

One source added that the league’s television partners are supportive of an October start.

When they say it’s about the money…

Too much time on their hands

Nebraska’s Attorney General has issued a letter to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren warning that the conference appears to be non-compliant with the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act.

The letter sets a 9/21 deadline for the conference to prove cancellation followed B1G bylaws. pic.twitter.com/ppBvIgsOOW

— Sports Law Lust🎙 (@SportsLawLust) September 11, 2020

Apparently after all these years, it’s just now come to the attention of the Attorney General of the State of Nebraska that the Big Ten “is operating and conducting business within the State of Nebraska without being registered and/or failing to maintain registration to conduct business within the State of Nebraska.”  Obviously, the man has had a lot on his plate.

What follows in the letter is a long list of requested documents to be furnished by the 21st and a threat of civil penalties for failure to comply. Shit, it’s none of my business, but if I were Kevin Warren, I would be awfully tempted to channel my inner Delany and threaten to terminate Nebraska’s Big Ten membership by the same date. That would sure solve the problem.

It’s amazing they think this is going to work.  What a clusterfuck.

Cheap politics and the Big Ten

Ryan Day wants to play.

Ohio St. HC Ryan Day: pic.twitter.com/8tfDwM9XpM

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 10, 2020

Meanwhile, President Trump’s Big Ten outreach program seems to have run into resistance in the wrong places.

Holloway, who took over as Rutgers’ president in July after serving as provost at Northwestern, said he isn’t enamored with Trump’s involvement.

“I mean, it’s just cheap politics,” he told NJ Advance Media. “I want that person to be paying attention to matters of national security and national importance. This does not rise to that level — not for a half-second. And even if it was a president that I was completely in love with that was doing this, I’d still think it would be cheap politics.”

The problem is that neither of the two is wrong.  Classic impasse.

Ohio’s Attorney General strenuously objects.

If you need any more proof that 2020 has run completely off the rails, look no further than this.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is ready to recommend that Ohio State University officials file a lawsuit seeking monetary damages from the Big Ten and member schools that voted against playing football this autumn.

A team of state lawyers studying Ohio State’s contracts with the Big Ten believe an “excellent contract claim for several tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue” can be demanded in a lawsuit, Yost told The Dispatch…

“I think we have a cause of action” for violating contracts between the Big Ten and Ohio State and for illegal interference in a business relationship, Yost said.

“If these negotiations (over playing football) fall apart, we will be recommending legal action to our client, Ohio State University,” he said, adding his office believes the Big Ten lacked legal authority to cancel or delay the football season.

Yost, in case you were wondering, is an Ohio State grad.  Although I’m not sure his alma mater welcomes his help.

Comment was being sought Wednesday evening from Ohio State University administration officials. Asked for his comment on Yost’s statements, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith provided a one-word response: “Nothing.”

In case you’re also wondering if there’s anything else the conference has done for which Yost believes it’s overstepped its authority, well…

A Big Ten decision to begin playing football later would cancel talk of a lawsuit, Yost said, although he expressed doubts about the conference’s legal ability to cancel non-conference games.

This year is nuts.

Sticking to sports

Good to see our political class has time to sweat the small stuff.

State political leaders from around the Midwest wrote a letter to #B1G commissioner Kevin Warren asking for the league to reconsider its decision to postpone fall sports. pic.twitter.com/fWqZMLiWw1

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) September 8, 2020

Care to guess the political affiliation of every signer of the letter?

Trump and the Big Ten: respecting the grift

You know, I was going to keep my post simple on the POTUS’ conversation yesterday with Commissioner Warren, something like the hopes, the reality and the mockery, but my plans changed when I came across what is the greatest header on a 2020 sports story I’ll ever read:

Clay Travis Plays Role Setting Up Trump, Warren

Words truly fail me.  It’s a perfect confluence of events, and the details, which are lovingly laid out in the post, are as cringeworthy as you might expect, topped by this nugget:

It was last week that Joe Biden started running commercials in Big Ten markets that blamed Trump’s federal response to the pandemic as the main reason why the conference was not playing. That prompted frustrated White House aides to start talking about how Trump could play a role in getting the Big Ten’s teams back on the field to salvage a season and mute Biden’s attack. Travis, a vocal critic of the Big Ten’s decision, was part of those meetings.

The best thing is, it really doesn’t matter to those two what the Big Ten does.  If the conference does move up the start date at all, it’s a win for Trump, but if it doesn’t, he can just bitch about it, something he does well.  As for Travis, well, he’s got more credit with the rubes than ever, just from being able to say he influenced the President.

You can’t make this shit up.  You really can’t.