Good riddance, August.
You have been a month like no other for the Big Ten ... and for all of the wrong reasons.
This oh-so-hot-month featured more sizzling drama, angst and shock than an episode of Jerry Springer. And as August melts into September, the soap opera that is the Big Ten could have plot twists yet to unfold. Buckle up.
What will be next?
The insanity began to unfold long before August even got here. Back in July, the league punted its non-conference games and traditional 12-game schedule and opted for a 10-game, Big Ten-only schedule. Little did we know that was the first of many curve balls for the Big Ten amid these trying times of a COVID-19 pandemic.
The tumult that has occurred in August is arguably even greater than the crush of conference realignment that enveloped the landscape of college sports back in 2010. And the zenith zaniness was the postponement of the 2020 season on the 11th day of the month.
Coaches are steamed, ADs are miffed and fans are fed-up. Freshly minted commissioner Kevin Warren has come under scrutiny for his lack of transparency, ham-handed communication skills and dubious leadership.
The Big Ten presidents? Well, they have been mostly ... silent. It's OK for thousands of students to attend classes on their campuses amid the pandemic, but it's not OK to play football? Or to explain the thought process that went into the mammoth decision to postpone the season?
Go figure.
League athletic departments are hemorrhaging money and local economies built around bustling fall Saturdays will be brought to their knees.
Meanwhile, the college football season kicked off on Saturday with Austin Peay playing Central Arkansas. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 continue to march toward their September kickoffs. They eventually could be shuttered. Maybe not. If no season is played, the average Power Five school would lose $78 million, according to USAToday. The last year without an official college football season? Gotta go back to 1871.
The Big Ten sits on the curb, left trying to plot some sort of season that could start ... around Thanksgiving?
It's enough to make pundits wonder: WWJD. You know: What Would Jim (Delany) Do?
The good news? This is the last day of August. September has to be better, right? What could possibly go wrong?
Until then, let's examine a timeline of the major events that has unfolded for the Big Ten in what can only be described as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad August.
Aug. 3. A Facebook post by the mother of Indiana true freshman offensive lineman Brady Feeney makes national waves when she “asks for prayers” for her son who is “struggling mightily” with COVID-19.
Aug. 4. Star Minnesota wideout Rashod Bateman announces he is opting out of the 2020 season amid health and safety concerns. Fellow Big Ten players Rondale Moore and Micah Parsons—among others—soon follow suit, along with a raft of other players across the nation.
Aug. 5: Big Ten unveils its revised schedule. Careful to mention that the release of the overhauled menu of games doesn’t imply the season would be played, the Big Ten shares its new 2020 slate on BTN. Back on July 9, the Big Ten announced it was dumping its 12-game schedules for 10-game, Big Ten-only schedules.
• Following the lead of players in the Pac-12, Big Ten players join the #BigTenUnited movement. The list of demands is published in the Players’ Tribune and is written by “Players of the Big Ten.” The demands relate to player safety during the coronavirus pandemic, along with other platforms for change.
Aug. 7: Big Ten training camps open in earnest.
Aug. 8: Big Ten restricts practices to helmets-only. The league opts to remain in the "acclimatization period" of practices, as schools are allowed to use helmets as the only piece of protective equipment until further notice. The Big Ten says programs would remain in the initial phase based on advice from its COVID-19 advisory groups.
Aug. 9: Prominent college football players create the #WeWantToPlay hashtag; Power Five commissioners hold an emergency meeting. The “We Want to Play” movement is spearheaded by star Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, among others. The “#WeWantToPlay” hashtag proliferates social media.
Aug. 10: Nebraska coach Scott Frost says the school is looking at all options to play games in 2020, even playing outside of the Big Ten if the conference cancels the season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio State’s Ryan Day makes similar threats.
• Reports indicated 'at least' five Big Ten athletes had been diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that can be caused by viral infections like COVID-19.
Aug. 11: Big Ten announces it will postpone all fall sports in 2020. The Big Ten is the first of the five Power Five leagues to postpone. The Pac-12 quickly follows suit. The Big Ten leaders didn’t know all of the health consequences of playing athletics in the fall. So, the conference opts to punt based on knowledge gathered from medical experts.
Aug. 13: Jeff Brohm announces his plan to play football in the spring and fall of 2021.
• The NCAA cancels all Division I fall championships.
• Nebraska and Ohio State back off plans to play outside the Big Ten.
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Aug. 14: Parents of Iowa football players release a letter that has been sent to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren and the leadership of every Big Ten institution asking for more transparency and answers to the questions that remain unanswered. They also request that the conference reconsider its decision to not play football this fall due to Covid-19. Football parents from Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan and Penn State also speak out, wanting more transparency to the Big Ten’s decision-making process to postponing the season.
Aug. 16: Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields—a top Heisman contender—starts a petition asking the Big Ten to immediately reinstate the 2020 season. The petition gains quick traction and nets over 200,000 signatures in 24 hours. The NCAA’s top doctor, Dr. Brian Hainline, tells The Athletic: “Right now, if testing in the U.S. stays the way it is, there’s no way we can go forward with sports.
• A new fast, cheap and accurate saliva-based test—SalivaDirect—fuels hope for virus containment. Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health created the test, which received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Aug. 17: During a meeting with the press, Penn State A.D. Sandy Barbour says "It's unclear whether there was ever a vote or not," by Big Ten presidents to postpone, only adding to the confusion and frustration around the league's decision. Barbour also says she doesn't foresee the conference changing its decision to postpone fall sports, despite the angst of parents and players.
Aug. 19: Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren pens an "An Open Letter to the Big Ten Community" outlining reasons why it postponed the 2020 football season and all fall sports on August 11. The letter also says the decision will not be revisited.
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports the Big Ten "spring" football plan in the works calls for an early January start and a late Febraury end and includes possible use of domed stadiums in cities like Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Detroit.
Aug. 21: Led by the father of Ohio State star CB Shaun Wade, a group of Big Ten football parents assemble in front of Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Ill., to protest. They want answers to questions that went into the decision to postpone the season.
Aug. 27: Things take a real turn toward the surreal when a group of Nebraska football players sue the Big Ten requesting an order to invalidate the Big Ten's decision to not play football this fall.
Aug 28: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the Big Ten is thinking about starting its 2020 campaign around Thanksgiving, among several options under consideration. The idea receives quizzical looks from pundits.
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