Another round of realignment coming? ESPN Big Ten alums want Nebraska gone: 'Get the hell out!'
Just when it looked like the NCAA’s leadership appeared to be the worst-run organization in college sports, the Big Ten has decided to give the NCAA a run for its money.
The lack of direction and leadership displayed by the Big Ten in recent days has to be concerning for fans of that league as it appears individual coaches and players from across the conference had no idea the cord could be pulled on their fall season until this weekend — literally days after the league’s fall schedule was released.
Following the Big Ten’s decision to cancel its fall football season, Nebraska has expressed interest in playing this fall despite the conference’s decision to cancel the season.
At least one Nebraska outlet is asking if it’s time to end the school’s relationship with the Big Ten and return to the Big 12.
Well, if you gauge the temperature of that move by listening to Northwestern alum Michael Wilbon, of ESPN “Pardon The Interruption” fame, the Big Ten should give Nebraska the boot.
“You know what? The Big Ten has operated for 116 years, most of them damn successful without Nebraska, which has been around for the last nine,” Wilbon said during the most recent episode of his show. “I got a lot of friends from Nebraska, starting with my dear friend Mike Gleason, he’s just gonna have to plug your ears up, because you know what I hope somebody on that call set to Nebraska’s representatives, even as President? ‘Get the hell out!’
“If you want to turn and tuck tail after you receive $52 million of guaranteed TV money every year, then go, go somewhere else. What is what an inflated sense of self in Nebraska football program has that hasn’t done a damn thing in like a decade or more, they’ve done nothing. And now they want to tuck tail? I hope somebody said, ‘Get out!'”
"This is the story of a crisis."@RealMikeWilbon defends the Big Ten and Pac-12's decision to cancel fall football, saying any program that doesn't like it can "get out" pic.twitter.com/26XCAcOmRf
— PTI (@PTI) August 11, 2020
Apparently, Michigan alum and ESPN analyst Desmond Howard agrees.
Check out his reaction to Nebraska on Wednesday:
Tell how you really feel about Nebraska @DesmondHoward ….. pic.twitter.com/rdyubsOkap
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) August 12, 2020
Now would be a good time for the leaders of the Big Ten to step up and calm these waters. However, based on what we’ve seen from the Big Ten’s leaders in recent days, that won’t be happening.
I fail to see how wanting to play football is the same as “tucking tail and running” from the conference. If the B10 wanted to play, but Nebraska wanted to sit out, then I would consider that running. Nebraska never said they want to leave the B10, only that they want to play football regardless of what the rest of the conference does.
Definitely seems like misplaced anger..
Totally agree. It looks like the Big10 waved the white flag and surrendered and do the schools still get the guaranteed $54M if there is no season? Do they think those stuffy intellectuals in that conference will want to play this spring?
Funny, I was going to say the same thing. Notre Dame and SEC fans all agreeing about something. Strange times … :)
Not surprising that ESPN talking heads agree with canceling football and want to eject programs that don’t fall in line.
Leader is a word the Big 10 is totally lacking at this time.
No doubt. They miss the heck out of Delany. The crybaby alums trying to talk tough now is just comical.
Typical ESPN employees
I saw this tweeted by a Husker writer and thought it made so much sense.
“Given how many atrocious things have happened with Big Ten athletic programs over the past decade, it’s amusing how many people in the conference want to kick Nebraska out for wanting to play football.”
If I’m Nebraska, I’d just say “peace I’m out”. And play as an independent until another conference picks us up. The Big 12 would obviously be the ideal choice, but idk if the Big 12 would take back just Nebraska, which would give them an odd number of teams in the conference.
Maybe Iowa would join them.
The Big10 played with 11 for years.
If it’s to dangerous to play football why is it not to dangerous to have thousands of students on campus? If you are going to go one way or the other then commit fully to whichever decision you make.
My argument is that football is a dangerous game regardless. Every snap you play you risk life and limb. If you are more scared of a virus with a 99% recorvery rate than you are of dealing with lifetime injuries like knee pain, concussions or paralysis then you probably shouldn’t be playing football to begin with.
I haven’t really thought about it like that. But that’s a great point. I’d be much more concerned about getting a knee or neck injury than getting coronavirus.
You can’t that knee injury home to grandma and kill her with it though.
It’s one thing to risk personal injury. It’s quite another to risk injuring and killing family.
I happen to know from an official at the University of Iowa that the Big Ten had a plan to go to 16 teams by adding two from South of their footprint, and it fell through. They already had the logo in place, simply filling in the space in the letter “G” to make it a “6” for Big Ten (16).
They will play hardball with Nebraska if they try to skip, and Nebraska knows their newsbites are just saber-rattling for their fans. At best, Nebraska might get a chance to play Big 12 games this Fall, but if the Big Ten plans to play in the Spring, NU will be in lockstep with the other teams.
I don’t see how a spring season is even possible. Draft eligible players will have no chance to play and you can’t convince me that you will have schools playing 2 seasons in the same year. That sounds a bit out there for me. I would bet on a complete cancellation of football for the Big 10 and PAC 12 before a spring season.
Imagine sitting outdoors in Lincoln. Nebraska in late January in a blizzard. Sounds like real fun!
Because of the incoming freshman and out going senior scholarship situation, spring football isn’t gonna happen.
You think people don’t go to games in Green Bay or Buffalo in January? Guess you aren’t such a tough guy after all.
I’ve slept in the snow more times than you have slept in a bed jerk.
Do Wilbon et al. also want OSU gone since Day said and is doing nearly the exact same thing as Nebraska?
Don’t blame Wilbon or these other commentators. They’re just saying what their networks tell them to say. Blame the networks.
Sorry, but Mike Wilbon’s take is straight dog crap. What a total clown. If tens of thousands of students can return to the dorms and attend in person classes, then you can play football. These Big Ten presidents are full of crap if their logic is “why should we play football during this pandemic” even though they’re having in-person classes, instead of “all of our classes are online, why should we play football if there’s no in person classes?” They cannot possibly be that naive thinking that in-person classes won’t turn out to be a total disaster. There has to be another reason. No person is that ignorant and flat-out retarded. I’d argue the virus is gonna spread faster in the dorms than the general public. There is no way people are gonna follow social-distancing guidelines, wear masks, and not party. They are not looking out for the health & well being of their students and student athletes if they are still having in-person classes, therefore they lose the right to claim the moral high ground by cancelling college football. The Big Ten has shown pathetic leadership. I’d argue the college students will be safer in their own “bubble” with their teams being tested twice a week and monitored so they don’t break the rules. They probably have less of a chance of catching the virus with their football team than if they were out in the general public. That is a fact.
A whole lot of people are arguing the same thing.
They should not worry about NU leaving, its their top players leaving that should worry them.
So if UN leaves the little 10 and goes back to the big 12/10 does that mean that arkie or missou joins them to make it the big 12 again?? It would certainly help either of their chances of being relevant again in football…just a thought…
No. Why would they?
The SEC should try to get Nebraska
Nebraska and Ohio State in the SEC.
Can’t say I blame the Big 10 people. It’s supposed to be a conference, not every program for itself. It’s kind of like if 13 SEC teams decided to play the season, but A&M decided to opt out.
Big 10 has gone woke. That’s all this is about.
Hmm, so OSU and Nebraska have the SAME IDEA and only Nebraska needs to “get the hell out”?? Typical libers and their HYPOCRISY! It will be interesting to see how many of the “opt outs” (players AND CONFERENCES) get infected vs the sane ones who elected to live a somewhat normal life and play!
The fact that these two loudmouth fools are bad-mouthing Nebraska almost guarantees Nebraska will come out looking 100 x better than the rest of the Big 10 after the 2020 season..
Yep. Even if nothing comes if the Huskers’ talk of playing elsewhere, they can say to their players and recruits that they fought for them and tried to play, and players like it when coaches have their back.
Would Nebraska dare seek admission to the SEC?
Rabid football school, but does not add much to the fan base. Also, much more northern flavor. Iowa is a very eastern school and would be a poor fit. Oklahoma / Oklahoma State might be better choices if the SEC wants to look west.
And before someone is critical of Mizzou fitting, remember Missouri was predominately settled by those from Kentucky / Tennessee, was part of the south when it became a state, and is contiguous with the SEC. For one, I remain happy to be away from the Big 12 (except beating up on Kansas).
Why where the people who settled Missouri is relevant is beyond me. The majority of older SEC fans have a problem with your placement in the East.
I think Nebraska would be a good grab for the SEC. Their fanbase is lacking a little sense of humor BUT if getting out of the big 8 hasn’t fixed some of that then maybe the relief of getting out of the big 10 would.
I agree Wolfman, NU would be a good grab but then we need another school to balance it out. Not Ohio St in my mind. Maybe West VA or VA Tech?
good choices
I think MU should be in the west but am glad they are in the SEC. (And I have no connection to Missouri at all)
What if instead of considering conference realignment, the sports themselves were realigned?
Basketball can be played in any month, as it is indoors. Football needs to be played in decent weather. Games played in a blizzard or at -5° might be memorable, but they are not great for anybody on the field or in the stands. Baseball should not be played in Winter, which in college, a lot of it is played.
How about this proposal for college athletics.
September through February–College Basketball
The start of the college basketball season is done in anonymity to a large number of sports fans, because by the time football is done, basketball teams have played 10 games. Put it in its own exclusive season and give it an extra few weeks, in case the number of regular season games are expanded, like it has in my lifetime from 24 to 26 to 27 to 30 to 31.
March to July 4–College Football
Start the season the second Saturday of March and conclude with the National Championship on July 4. That gives time for 12 regular season games with a bye week, a Conference Championship week, two weeks until the semifinal round of Playoffs and more than a week before the July 4 Championship Game. Bowls could be held in the second half of June when K-12 kids are on summer vacation.
The second week of March is still cold in places like Minnesota and Michigan, but if they began their seasons on the road, they could play their first home games in April, about the time that Major League baseball is able to play outdoors in those places.
April-August: College Baseball
There are a lot of schools in cold climates that don’t have college baseball, because it would be impossible to play in February. A home SEC game in mid-February is still ridiculous outside of Gainesville, Baton Rouge, and College Station. Move the season up two months. More games could be played at night when people that work in the day could be in attendance.
College sports work around the pros schedules. That’s not changing.
^Exactly this.
Tangent – I’ve always wondered if the pro game would be better with a 34 week long bi-weekly schedule. Same number of games played, but no team plays on consecutive weekends. The NFC would play one weekend, the AFC the following weekend. Bye weeks would move a team from one conference bracket to another to play their cross-conference games.
Increasing the time between games would give players more time to heal between games, especially if scrimmages were banned the week after playing. That’s an upside for players, coupled with the downside of a longer season overall and summer games.
Before someone calls me an idiot for proposing this understand I’m not entirely sold on it myself. I just think it’s a curious proposal. It’s also something the pros can do that colleges can’t.
Games in blizzards are no good, I hear ya but I don’t want football in May or June. It begins breaking 90 in enough of the south in May and the ballsack swampfeat accompanies that. Working in the heat is fine. Watching football in it, nah.
College Athletes Bill of Rights…..it will be here soon. Congress is about to lower the boom on the ncaa model of one-sided amateurism where everyone gets paid except the players…..timmmmmmber!!!
And it won’t just be the renumeration issue but also overhauling the transfer portal by no longer being tied to a letter of intent, and no having to sit out a year after transfers…..they’re going to take the NCAA by the shoulders and shake some fairness into the process….
Congress can not figure out how to do anything but act childish unless it involves them getting more money for themselves!
Yep!
Big 12….Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Kansas-Kansas State, Iowa-Iowa State?
come on Iowa, connect the dots and join Nebraska making the Big 12 a 12 member conference.
i know it’s easy to mock the big 10 right now, but the vast majority of fans, players and coaches want the season to happen, and are feeling pretty devastated that it’s not. it’s just a handful of gutless, spaghetti-spined stuffed suits, with support from the talking heads toeing the party line, keeping it from happening. with how crazy this year has been, we need college football now more than ever, and it’s really depressing that we won’t have it.
i’ve never liked the sec. nothing personal, but as a Buckeye fan, i’ve taken a lot crap from sec fans since the early 90s, but this year, i’ll be rooting for the sec, acc and big 12 to have great seasons. and then i’ll hope that your success is enough to cost weasel warren his job. i mean, if your conferences can pull off the season successfully, it’ll mean weasel warren’s decision will not only have cost the big 10 tens of millions of dollars, it’ll have untold cost on all of those small businesses that make their whole year on college football season. after the devastation of the lockdowns, most of those businesses are hanging on by a thread, and were counting on college football season to get back in the black. and now it’s not happening.
Nice post.
Oh my gosh I just read something i liked from a Buckeye fan.
Wow, spot on
Well said sir. I’m sorry that this happened. Looking forward to our games in 22 and 23.
Good sense there.
Nebraska comes to SEC and Missouri goes to the Big 12 where they belong.
Neb. in the SEC, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. About has much sense as Bama belongs in the PAC 12, right?
Not happening.
How about Texas and Oklahoma get kicked out of the Big 12. Then Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Illinois could vote on whether to go to the Big 12, or stay where they are because without Oklahoma and Texas the Big 12 would be a fair place to compete.
Without Texas and OU, the Big 12 becomes a G5 conference.
Missouri is right where they belong.
I wonder why Wilbon hasn’t blasted OSU. Kick out Nebraska for calling BS but OSU is gold. Hypocrisy at its best.
Typical media. Always an agenda driven narrative.
The network telling him what he can and can’t say.
I don’t think Nebraska is going anywhere, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them return to the Big 12 and maybe the Big 12 also adding Independent BYU.
Two espn black guys supporting the black commissioner oh the big 10
Man….I didn’t see that coming…
Every network is using black commentators for everything this year.
They are particularly credible on NASCAR and hockey…..
We paid you 52 million dollars to play football with us and now you want to play football when we don’t? The nerve of ya.
True. A football team wants to play football? What the hell is wrong with them? Didn’t anyone tell them they MUST follow the liberal agenda?
Sleepy Joe would tell them that “they ain’t really black”
Michael, good article. Oh, no, not you, Michael Wilbon. Being at ESPN it’s puzzling how you missed the reporting of Ryan Day saying the same thing as Scott Frost. Maybe your degree from Northwestern needs to be brushed off.
A couple of Big 10ers with a microphone who are defending the brand. I get the feeling it’s going to take a lot more of the same to defend the B1G commish and the arrogance it takes to call a season off without any coordination with the football community.
There intellectual taunt to just “get out” is the perfect response to a decision that was not much more than a power play, to begin with.
How about this nebraska and Missouri to big12 –
SEC takes west Virginia for the SEC EAST
WIN WIN!!!
THAT GIVES THE BIG 12 TWO DIVIONS AND A TRUE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
WEST VIRGINIA FITS FOR AS AN SEC EAST MEMBER BETTER THAN MISSOURI