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

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.