Reports: Big Ten's conference-only decision blindsided rest of college football
The Big Ten’s announcement that it would play conference-only games this fall was the first big domino to drop ahead of the 2020 season. Final details of the decision (i.e. the schedule, number of games, etc) will be announced at a later date.
Many different scenarios are on the table for other conferences; however, the Big Ten went ahead and made their decision in early July. Following the announcement, reports surfaced that the Pac-12 and the ACC would follow suit, although no official announcements have been made.
Interestingly, reports are also surfacing that no one had any inclination the Big Ten would make a final announcement Thursday. Some had heard the Big Ten was leaning towards a conference-only schedule, but they didn’t expect an official announcement until next week sometime.
Even opponents of Big Ten programs were blindsided.
A lot of people in college athletics feel like they were blindsided by the Big Ten. https://t.co/mcRURIpAln
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) July 9, 2020
Statement from Arkansas State concerning Big Ten’s decision to only play conference games in 2020. Red Wolves were scheduled to play at Michigan on Sept. 19. pic.twitter.com/fF4pRs7EBl
— AStateNation (@AStateNation) July 9, 2020
Included in story: Big Ten’s plan to move to conference-only schedule was known among other conference commissioners but timing of final decision was unexpected.
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) July 9, 2020
This all just goes to show that the NCAA is pile of sh*t. They do nothing as a governing body when it comes to major collegiate sports. Now we have conferences making decisions without notifying others which in turn makes other athletic programs and conferences scurrying to figure out what to do next.
It’s kind of hard to have it both ways though. A few months back a lot of people on this site were saying “if the PAC can’t play then too bad for them”, or if the B1G can’t play who cares the SEC will still play. Now it’s they shouldn’t be able to make decisions without informing others first? What happened to ‘who cares about anyone else, the SEC will be fine’?
I don’t think anyone is scurrying, I mean the article mentioned most knew the B1G was leaning this direction, they just thought an official announcement would go down next week, so anyone saying they feel blindsided was probably just not paying attention in the first place, and that’s on them. More than likely other conferences will just play follow the leader.
Now don’t go pointing out the double speak that seems to involve every subject know to man these days. I prefer the concept of “courtesy calls” but in this day of leaks, SM and being first … well you know how that goes. Ark St had to have suspected that was coming but I can appreciate when reality hit and they just saw 1.5 mil fly out the window.
I guess what I’m saying is feeling the reality of something that just hit knowing it was always a possibility is different than being “blindsided”. When you’re blindsided that usually means a reality that you had no idea could even be a possibility just hit, and that’s not what happened here. Yes, I do feel for the little guys like Ark St. but hopefully during this whole situation they have already been preparing scenarios in case the 1.5M would get taken off the table. If anything, college football and the NFL both have had an advantage that way over other sports that never even finished their 2019 season. They truly got blindsided by this.
Heck, not even smaller schools but I fear for Mizzou right now if a season can not be played. The Athletic Department already got hosed a ton of money from the NCAA last year and now this. It stinks all around for everyone tbh.