Started By
Message

Doyel: Big Ten swings and misses on a brand-damaging Monday, looking dumb and weak

Posted on 8/10/20 at 9:23 pm
Posted by paperwasp
11x HRV tRant Poster of the Week
Member since Sep 2014
23233 posts
Posted on 8/10/20 at 9:23 pm
quote:

On Monday, the biggest day in college sports since the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled in March, which was the biggest day in college sports since ever, nothing happened.

The Big Ten didn’t cancel the upcoming football season, as we were told it had. The Pac-12 didn’t follow and do the same, as we were told it would. No teams switched conferences. No players, far as we know anyway, entered the transfer portal.

Nothing happened on Monday.

Nothing, except for President Trump retweeting Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence at lunchtime, then tweeting out his own college football hype video after dinner.

Other than all that, I mean.

Nothing happened Monday.

The Big Ten damaged its brand on Monday. Irrevocably? Oh, probably not irrevocably. People forget things.

But it will take some time for people to forget what the Big Ten did on Monday, when it allowed word to get out that its presidents had voted – informally, apparently – to cancel the 2020 season. We didn’t just have the results, but the score. It was 12-2 in favor of canceling the season. We even had the scorecards: The presidents of Iowa and Nebraska were the two in dissent. Everyone else, including the bosses of Michigan and Ohio State, and of IU and Purdue, voted (informally) to cancel.

But then the coaches got wind of it. They read Twitter, same as you and me. Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh put out a statement lauding the UM athletic department’s handling of the coronavirus, and it has been rather successful: just 11 positive tests outs of 893 administered, and none in the last 353. Ohio State’s Ryan Day put out a statement of his own, saying: "Swinging as hard as we possibly can right now for these players!! This isn’t over! #FIGHT"

Nebraska’s Scott Frost suggested – no, he came out and said – the Cornhuskers would look to join another league if necessary: “We want to play no matter who it is or where it is. We'll see how those chips fall. We certainly hope it's in the Big Ten. If it isn't, I think we're prepared to look for other options."

And then Ryan Day went on ESPN and suggested – no, came out and said – the same thing: "We need to look at every option. And if (another league) is the only option, we need to explore it and see if that's something we can do."

Imagine that: Ohio State joining the SEC for a year. Hey, Notre Dame already joined the ACC football race this year. What’s so weird about Ohio State to the SEC, Nebraska back to the Big 12, and so on?

The Big Ten, though. You look stupid, and weak. People against canceling college football – the SEC, in other words, your main competition for elite recruits – for years will use the league’s premature evacuation of the 2020 season against it for recruiting. No matter how this season plays out, even if (when) it gets canceled eventually, the Big Ten will always be the first domino that tried to fall, tried to go its own way, and was so influential that exactly nobody followed.

And then the other people, those on the side of canceling the season – and canceling on-campus college classes this fall, too – are now down on the league. The Big Ten lost those folks by backing down when the heat got too hot. President Trump retweeted Trevor Lawrence’s plea for a season and even his request for solidarity – President Trump: pro-union? – by adding: “The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay.”

One hour later President Trump tweeted, “Play College Football!” And then at about 7 p.m., he tweeted a 29-second hype video on the upcoming season.

The Big Ten is alone on an island, mocked by other conferences, trolled by the President, scorned by those who actually agree with its initial premise of canceling the season.

Well done, folks. Now step aside and let the adults in the room handle this.

Big Ten swings and misses on a brand-damaging Monday, looking dumb and weak
Posted by Sun God
Member since Jul 2009
44874 posts
Posted on 8/10/20 at 9:26 pm to
That was a satisfying read
Posted by sand mountainDvalues
Member since Oct 2018
8718 posts
Posted on 8/10/20 at 10:04 pm to
The conference chock full of Pedophiles manages to continue damaging their brand.


I am shocked
Posted by hilltophog
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Member since Sep 2016
1619 posts
Posted on 8/11/20 at 1:02 am to
The Big Ten has consistently done more to hold back college athletics than any other conference. The fact that at least one of their schools (Wisconsin) refused to allow their senior spring athletes reclaim eligibility after the COVID cancellation shows you how they feel about student athletes and the collegiate athletics in general.

Then you add the fact that the BIG10 has opposed legislation that would greatly benefit college baseball (paid 3rd coach, added scholarships, temporary roster relief for COVID) and the BIG10 has painted itself as anything but a conference looking to improve the game.

Consider this - G5 conferences who are much weaker financially than the BIG10 supported the legislation of allowing a 3rd paid baseball assistant. The key part is ALLOW - nobody was going to be forced to hire a 3rd paid coach but it allowed the freedom to do so. Many G5 conferences in the South was for this because they realize that this helps build the game and develop great coaches who can then help their program. The BIG 10 on the other hand said "if we can't afford it then you can't hire an extra coach - that would be unfair!"

Then you have these recent events where the BIG10 tried to get all the P5s to join them in an attempt to take down college football... seriously. Now they are crawfishing because their coaches, players, and general public opinion is ripping them a new one. Maybe COVID will eventually cause the cancel of college football but it's too damn early to throw in the towel like little bitches. The fact that my Razorbacks came out in favor of playing the season in spite of our suckage and liklihood of 0-10 shows you how limp wristed the BIG 10 is. Some bucknut will say "her der dey need money" nah mfer we might suck at football but we are doing pretty good financially. Of course no football would hurt us like it would hurt anyone but we would survive. We just aren't bitches like ya'll are in the rust belt. Bitch 10 ----yeah that sounds about right.

Sorry for the rant. Have a great week - GO HOGS!
This post was edited on 8/11/20 at 8:53 am
Posted by NineLineBind
LA....no, the other one
Member since May 2020
6955 posts
Posted on 8/11/20 at 8:03 am to
quote:

People against canceling college football – the SEC, in other words, your main competition for elite recruits – for years will use the league’s premature evacuation of the 2020 season against it for recruiting.

Premature evacuation
Posted by MillerLiteTime
Atlanta
Member since Aug 2018
2543 posts
Posted on 8/11/20 at 8:24 am to
The B10 and P12 were never going to cancel unless the SEC, ACC, and B12 did too. They held informal "discussions" on the matter to determine what the vote would be if there was a vote, intentionally leaked it to the press to gauge what the other 3 conferences would do, and when they realized the other 3 were not going to cancel they backed off and acted like there never was any vote to cancel.

They wanted to eat cake and have it too. The Big Ten and Pac 12 wanted all the media arse kissing that would come from being the perceived "leaders" in putting player safety and academics first, while also being unwilling to take on the risk of the other 3 conferences pulling off a successful and safe season while they looked like idiots for imposing a death penalty on themselves.

Now if the season goes great, they will claim there never was any serious discussion about canceling. If it goes badly, they will claim that they proposed a cancellation plan to all the conferences, but the win at all costs SEC refused to join them in a "collaborative effort" to put player safety first. It's all a big media PR stunt to them, knowing full well how easy it is to manipulate a woke sports media culture that cares more about a flashy scandal headline than reporting on actual sports.
This post was edited on 8/11/20 at 8:27 am
first pageprev pagePage 1 of 1Next pagelast page
refresh

Back to top
logoFollow SECRant for SEC Football News
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest updates on SEC Football and Recruiting.

FacebookTwitter