Dismissing the biggest myth about Big Ten’s return to play
By John Buhler
The Big Ten football season not happening isn’t part of a wacky conspiracy.
Big Ten football may be back on after a vote to play by the university presidents and chancellors.
The Big Ten voted to postpone its 2020 college football season back in early August due to the ongoing global pandemic. Though the Pac-12, the Mountain West and the MAC would all agree to not play football this fall, the six other FCS conferences and a few national independents decided to solider on anyway. With a Big Ten return potentially looming, let’s bust its biggest myth now.
The Big Ten didn’t postpone its season to prevent Trump from getting re-elected.
Though many of the states in the Midwestern footprint may inevitably decide the 2020 United States Presidential Election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, this isn’t why the Big Ten presidents voted to postpone its college football season. It was all about control and trying to make the other conferences follow their lead, which only a few did.
The study the Big Ten largely postponed its college football season on proved to be faulty. With advances in coronavirus testing, especially the inexpensive and more readily available saliva-based test, we just might be able to have a college football season after all. It’s already underway for five FBS conferences and two national independents with the SEC starting up in two weeks.
Suggesting the Big Ten’s postponement was all about getting Trump out of the White House is ludicrous because doing so is brand suicide, socio-economic malpractice and disgustingly blatant hubris. Why would the Big Ten willingly give itself the SMU Mustangs Death Penalty just to spite a man who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? SMU still hasn’t fully recovered from Pony Excess.
Given that college football is a major economic driver in cities such as Ann Arbor, Michigan, Iowa City, Iowa and State College, Pennsylvania, why would the Big Ten university presidents want to willingly make many of the cities they call home essentially boarding school ghost towns? Not every Big Ten campus is lucky to call state capitals like Columbus, Ohio or Lincoln, Nebraska home.
And finally, though we fully understand that many academics can be incredibly vain people, how big of an ego does a university president have to have to think he or she can decide a Presidential Election by preventing college football be played on his or her campus? As Hanlon’s Razor tells us, never mistake incompetence for malice, especially if someone lives to tell you how smart they are.
So now that we got that out of the way, the other conspiracy theory circling around was some Big Ten teams will play while others will sit this one out. As it turns out, this will be an all-or-nothing affair for the Big Ten. If the Ohio State Buckeyes play, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will play and they will like it. Take those L’s with that television contract money you so don’t deserve at all.
This is how conference allegiances work, you’re either all in or you’re all out. There is no in between. There are only 14 member institutions in this Power 5 conference. With teams in the AAC dying to be invited to the big kid’s table, you better believe that if a Big Ten football season is happening that newcomers Maryland and Rutgers will get in line, shut up and play some dang ball.
By voting to postpone the season back in August, the Big Ten isn’t in good graces with many other conferences across the country for creating scheduling nightmares for them. This may impact the Big Ten’s chances of getting into the College Football Playoff with an eight-or-nine game season in the eyes of the Selection Committee. It’s petty, but that’s what college football has been all about.
We’re going to talk about this Big Ten debacle for the rest of time, but it’s not a Trump conspiracy.
For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.