"They Want to Tell the Big Ten Off"

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ATHENS - The change-by-the-hour fate of college football entered Monday morning with a head of stem against play starting any time this fall. 

Reports were surfacing that the Big Ten, on the heels of the MAC’s decision to not play football this fall, was looking very seriously at not playing this fall, too. ESPN reported that the Power 5 “held an emergency meeting on Sunday, as there is growing concern among college athletics officials that the upcoming football season and other fall sports can't be played because of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Reporting from ESPN and other outlets indicated that the Big Ten was “ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season”. 

Sunday looked grim as reports of “this is just a matter of time” popped up all over reporting. But on Sunday night, one Dawg Post source started pumping the breaks on college football being postponed or cancelled until the spring. 

“I’m curious to hear what Sankey thinks because I still think they can play and would love to tell the Big Ten to piss off. I think the SEC and Big 12 want to play and expect to play still. Most of the ACC is the same,” the source said.

Then this:

“The SEC isn’t going to forced by the Big Ten to do anything, man,” they continued. “Maybe if they independently come to a similar conclusion - which at this point they haven’t - this is a different conversation. I think there is a real chance some leagues try to make a go of it. Not definite.”

Meanwhile, administrative officials around the SEC were wondering what just happened over the weekend. Friday night the SEC seemed full steam ahead towards a football season that was going to kick off after everyone else, but was going to kick off. And the league seemed headed to releasing a full schedule  sometime in the coming days. 

"Why would we stop right now?” asked one SEC administrator Monday morning. “The season doesn't start until late September. I think there are 47 days between now and the first game.”

That’s when the rug was pulled out from under the SEC, ACC and Big 12. What just happened, and why was the SEC looking like the bad guy all of the sudden? Insiders have been certain the Pac-12 and Big Ten have been hand-in-hand on this one, and that whatever one does the other will do. 

“(SEC Commissioner Greg) Sankey is getting ready to flex,” added the source with SEC ties texted Dawg Post Monday morning. 

Just after that reporting came from the Detroit Free-Press that the Big Ten was canceling the season. 

"It's done," the paper reported one high-ranking source in the Big Ten as saying Monday afternoon. 

The outlet seemingly confirmed long-time sportscaster Dan Patrick’s reporting that the Big Ten had voted 12-2, with Nebraska and Iowa voting “no”, to shut the season down for the fall. 

But pushback in the heartland was swift. Monday afternoon a slew of outlets in that region started writing that the Big Ten wasn’t done quite yet. That included the Chicago Tribune, which reported that "a top-level" Big Ten source texted that "no final decisions have been made.” The Columbus Dispatch reported just after lunchtime that Ohio State had not yet moved to stop practices.

Meanwhile, Nebraska coach Scott Frost said his program was willing to not play in the Big Ten if it came to that. 

"We want to play a Big Ten schedule. Our University is committed to playing no matter what that looks like and how that looks,” Frost said Monday. “We want to play no matter who it is, or where it is. So we will see how those chips fall. We certainly want that to be in the Big Ten. If it isn’t I think we are prepaired to look for other options.” 

“Other options”. Wow. 

An unholy alliance, according to a media sources, was developing during the rubble that was the Big Ten’s mess. 

“The SEC and ACC on same page,” a source in media texted Dawg Post on Monday morning. 

AL.com then later reported Monday that “sources have said the SEC and the ACC are the most aligned at this point. The whole thing could hinge on if B12 sides with B10/Pac-12 or SEC/ACC.”

Reports have the Pac-12 meeting on Tuesday to discuss their fall. In the SEC, not fewer than three athletic directors - at Arkansas, Ole Miss and Texas A&M - expressed support for playing in the fall. 

But even if the SEC, ACC and Big 12 jump the set of hurdles that still confront a start to the season in the fall, insiders say that COVID-19 is only one issue for the leagues. League sources say there is concern in the SEC that hte NCAA could still change things by granting players an extra year of eligibility before the season gets underway. 

In that scenario, players who don’t want to train for a non-certain season could opt out of this fall - leaving some schools with even fewer players on rosters that could get touched up or even ravaged by COVID-19 during the season.

There is also the concern about students from across the nation returning to universities with football players. At that point players, who at UGA have been virtually isolated, and in what UGA administrators have called “their bubble”, would be among their peers in the classroom, in dorms and on campus transit during the season. 

But the most consequential long-term issue still hanging over the start of college football is the right to organize as a union. Southern states, like Georgia and South Carolina, are what is called right-to-work states. That means unions, as they are known in the midwest, don’t exist with any real power in the South. 

But a move to unionize all college football players could be a very real problem across the board, and in Big Ten country specifically. Forming a union could also be step one in the destruction of amateurism in college sports. College players do not currently have a union, but this medical issue - COVID-19 - highlights the fact that there are circumstances that have always been in college sports, but rarely been addressed. 

If the players unionize college sports will have changed forever. And there has never been a time in the sport where players have as much control as they have right now. That is another concern of the administrators and board members of institutions.

With all of that said, as of Monday afternoon insiders expect the SEC to move slowly towards opening fall camp across the league next Monday. It should also be noted, that the loss of a football season would put a spotlight on the lopsided nature of the revenue the sport brings in. It would further spotlight how valuable players are to the system that is college athletics. 

If college football somehow dies this fall it will be the ruin of more than a few athletic departments and sports. These are monumental decisions for the players, their families and the schools for which they play. 

None of this is easy.