Roundball Shaman

Cy the Cyclone said, “Here's the Rules.” He didn’t name them all. There will also be other new rules in effect for game play as well... All linemen must be six feet apart while set on the line of scrimmage. The game ball will be sanitized after every play with lots of gooey cleaning solution. The quarterback must not yell out signals as this might spread something nasty from his mouth. He must WHISPER the signals with restraint while being muffled and oxygen-deprived behind a thick face mask. In a two-back set, they must be HOW many feet apart when they get set?... You know the answer, all together now...! Covid testing will be done on all players and coaches and field personnel at halftime. Test results will be completed four weeks from now. The results will be announced next month. Any positive tests will be ignored and the results suppressed. QBs must not stand next to coaches that are in vulnerable age groups. While setting up game strategy, QB and Coach must use hand signals and semaphore to communicate. The other team must promised they won’t look. Of course, huddling after every play is OUT. Players must stand with their backs to each other in a wide circle while drones deliver plays in from coaches up in the booth. After touchdowns, there will be no celebrating allowed. Players will be permitted to bring towels out from under their jerseys to wave with slogans like, “Oh Boy!.. Whoopee!... and of course, “Take that, Suckahs...” If a game is tied after four quarters, there will be no overtime so that further exposure and possible contamination is reduced. Games will be decided by which school brought the hottest cheerleaders to the sidelines. Judges will be the game announcers for the network doing the television feed. And most of all, after you’ve memorized and followed all of the 1,750 rules and regulations now governing current college football games in the Covid age... be sure to HAVE FUN and ENJOY THE GAME.

“The Big Ten's credibility is being torn apart from the inside out, and it only has itself to blame” “...it shows a continued lack of unity within the Big Ten. Despite that overwhelming presidential vote not to play, it is known that Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio State either supported a fall season or preferred to wait a bit longer to make a decision. In some form, coaches and officials at those three schools are not willing to let this go. They see recruits -- and by extension, future NFL Draft picks -- looking elsewhere because the spring football decision. ... As frivolous as a lawsuit by Nebraska players looks initially, damage could be inflicted. The Big Ten could be compelled to release documents that actually reveal how and why the league decided to postponed the season. And that's not to mention how the issue has been politicized since the start.” https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-big-tens-credibility-is-being-torn-apart-from-the-inside-out-and-it-only-has-itself-to-blame/ My Comment: The Big Ten is now a tarnished brand. It used to be looked up to a powerful, classy league of leadership. It now looks like a dysfunctional family of members with some just waiting for the right moment to hit the Exit door. The Old Rust Belt Legacy Powers aren’t going anywhere. They have, and will always have, the power in this association and they will smooth things over. But some members like the Huskers now see how little their opinions matter to this organization of Old Money. The Huskers have learned where they rate on the scale of Big Ten importance. Will the Big Ten try to make amends with the Huskers? Maybe they will try something because that might be good Optics for the Conference. Or maybe they won’t even bother and see the Huskers more as a nuisance than adding much value to the Big Ten brand. For now, the (big) money pot will grease the wheels and everyone will bide their time. But there are traditions and personal egos involved here, and those usually take longer to manifest into a show of action. But action will come in due time.

Cy the Cyclone: “Went to a high school football game last night... Nobody died!!!” In the Year 2060 - Future conversation from a Grandpa to his Grandson: “You know, believe it or not, when I was in high school we didn’t have to wear masks! And we didn’t have to sit six feet apart from each other.. in a classroom! Together! And we could all eat in this thing called a Cafeteria where we could gather at big tables. The food was crummy but at least it was better than sitting in Study Hall. And on Friday nights, we played football! Against other schools! And they brought lots of people to the games, too! Friends and parents and family and neighbors. They actually got out of their houses and away from their Quantum Viewing Portals for a few time segments. And they all sat and yelled and screamed together and they enjoyed it! We enjoyed it! And some of us even traveled together on these things called busses and had fun coming to and going from the games...” Then the Grandson asked, “What was this thing called ‘The Big Ten’?” Grandpa replied, “They were pretty good at football. It was this league that stretched from the Sand Hills all the way to New York and it had fourteen schools in it.” The Grandson smiled. “Sure, Grandpa... It was ‘The Big Ten’ but it had 14 schools in it and it went all the way from our wide-open Sand Hills to those tall buildings in Manhattan!...You should have quit when you were ahead. You almost had me believing all this stuff you just told me!” Grandpa paused a moment and said... “Yeah. I almost want to believe this stuff, too.”

Husker fans and fans of other Big 10 universities have been pondering every reason under the Sun to figure out why The Ten threw in the towel on the Fall season and did so quickly. They said they were going to have a Fall season. Suddenly, they weren’t. They put the carrot out on a stick for fans and said they would plan for a Spring season... maybe. Those critical of The Ten have called their decision wrong, stupid, ill-advised, not transparent enough, and other not-so-complimentary descriptions. Of course, a minority have voiced support for what they decided as being prudent during a health crisis. Most have wondered why the Big 10 has been so secretive about how they made the decision and that the decision seems to have been made at the very upper bureaucrat levels and certainly not the consensus opinion of the level of the Coaches and players. Why would they do that? Why be so secretive? Why so mysterious about what their decision was based upon? Radical Conspiracy Theory Alert: There is a possible reason. Maybe they aren’t as clueless as they appear from the outside. Maybe the Big 10 has decided to slowly GET OUT OF SPORTS ENTIRELY. This might be their trial balloon to see what the reaction is and this buys them time to lay out their slow roll-back of involvement in others sports programs as well. You might say NO WAY. There’s too much money to be made in sports. Well, maybe that gravy train is coming to an end. People have been cutting cable for years. Some networks are getting tired of insane bidding wars for rights to air the games. Many folks don’t like that a football coach is often the highest paid “Public Official” in the entire State. Maybe with Covid and with the ever-rising cost of education both for the university and for students, the Big 10 Higher-Ups realize that on-campus life is never again going to be what it was. Maybe they don’t like the ruling that gives players access to earning money. Maybe they don’t like the talk about a Players Union. And they think, “Why are we trying to keep this Big Sports Train Running when we will have declining enrollment for years to come? Jobs are being eliminated in many fields due to robotics and AI. Do we just want to be something that exists to take big media money and act as a farm team for professional sports, or do we want to go back to our roots and be a... SCHOOL for the jobs that will remain in the future?” Maybe the Big 10 is playing football this Thanksgiving or in the Spring. At this point, you’d have to think they would be just to quiet the uproar. But you have to wonder if some of the smart people in the Big 10 (and there ARE some smart people in the Big 10) aren’t reading the long-term Tea Leaves and seeing that big changes are coming for universities and for college sports programs. On that last point, you can take that to the bank no matter what the future holds. What does this all mean for the Huskers? It could mean that they and the other programs choose to keep their football programs going and find other associations to do so. Maybe the Big 10 could just get out of the sports business and leave it to its members to go their own ways. Maybe the Big Ten has a plan after all. And they just don't want you to know it... yet.

Three counts against the Big Ten: First count: “Wrongful interference with business expectations.” Conference can argue that athletes are students first and they are providing the access to education that students were promised. The Conference does not guarantee employment or opportunities after college to other areas of study so why should they be held responsible to treat this one group differently. Second count: “Breach of contract. The league... has established it exists in part to benefit its student-athletes. It potentially violated that contract by not holding an actual vote within its Council of Presidents and Chancellors.” If one is arguing how best to “benefit the student-athletes”, the Conference can argue that out of an abundance of caution, cancelling the fall season benefits the student athletes more than a potential risky decision to play games during a pandemic. Two different interpretations of what actually benefits the student athletes more. And even if a vote was taken, the Conference may have some Force Majeure powers that would override any voting requirement. Third count: “Declaratory judgment. The Big Ten not actually voting on the decision, or at least being unwilling and/or unable to produce records of such a vote, violates its governing documents. The decision should be invalid and unenforceable.” Here again, back to the idea that the Conference may have some Force Majeure powers that would override any voting requirement or need to declare results of a vote. Or maybe the governing documents will be determined not to affect this issue at all. Bottom Line: The Husker players could have swung for the fences and done some much deeper, more radical arguments. Maybe they’ll get somewhere with this or maybe they won’t. But even if they get everything they asked for in these limited counts, they could have gone for so much more. And this all will make the Huskers EVEN MORE popular with the old Rust Belt Powers-That-Be that run this conference with the same heavy hand that the Good Old Boys in Austin do as when the Red was in the Texas Conference. Better keep your future Conference options open, boys.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/eight-nebraska-football-players-file-lawsuit-against-the-big-ten-seeking-to-reverse-canceled-season/ “Eight Nebraska football players have filed a lawsuit against the Big Ten. By doing so, the players hope to force the conference to reverse its previous decision to postpone its football season until 2021.” ... In all, the suit raises three counts against the conference: Wrongful interference with business expectations -- that the season represents an opportunity for players to work towards a career in football and develop brands for name/image/likeness use later. Breach of contract by not holding an actual vote within its Council of Presidents and Chancellors. Declaratory judgment by either not actually voting on the decision or being unable to produce evidence of a vote.” My Comments/Questions: Where is the contract between the players and the University or the Conference that establishes exactly what their relationship is? Why aren't the players to be considered employees? Independent contractors? “Student athletes”?! “Athletes who attend classes?” Al this fuzziness that has gone on for decades about this is slowly coming to an end. Is anyone denying the players the right to pursue an education? Is the University a place of higher learning or is the football program and others like it not a farm team for the National Football League? Bottom line... become professionals. There’s no shame in that. You trade a skill for direct compensation. Billions of people do this every day. End the masquerade and the pretending and the slight of hand and put an end to this fuzzy relationship tilted in favor of those who make billions of dollars off the "unpaid" efforts of young men. Stadiums are filled around the country on a normal Saturday not to see Conference officials or University representatives. They buy tickets and pay good money to see... the PLAYERS. They have thr skill and the talent. What they lack is the legal protections they need. Treat the players like the professionals that they already are in all but name recognition. Let the players form a Union and become professionals and let’s move on with an honest foundation and stop the pretending. Honestly, how many people in the State of Nebraska would stop being Husker fans if the players were considered professionals? A few might, but true Husker fans root for the State and legacy of the University and all the great Husker memories and those yet to come and just because the legal status of the players would change should not affect any of that.

What Dr. Tom might think about saying today: “Look, we had four choices back in the day. One, stay in the Big Texas Conference and be treated like left-over hay chaff like they always treated us. Two, follow Colorado and join up with the West Coast boys and have to do so much traveling and recruiting we could just have easily gone out to the Moon instead. Three, try to lock up with the SEC and develop those big new rivalry games with teams like Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. Or what we did, join up the Big 10 and tap into big revenue and finally get the you-know-what away from the Texas troublemakers...” And here’s what Dr. Tom ACTUALLY was quoted as saying in 2016: Osborne on the move from the Big 12 to the B1G & wanting to go back to the B12: “Certainly hadn’t heard that from the program. We were between a rock and a hard place. When we made the move, the southern half of the B12 were going to the Pac 12. We knew Missouri & Colorado were leaving. It looked like we would be one of the last schools standing and we didn’t want to be in that position. The Big Ten reached out and it worked geographically. We decided to join the Big Ten & not many people have looked back. I haven’t heard talk from any level on going back to the B12. Things are better now than it was about 5 years ago.” https://www.cornnation.com/2016/7/29/12330100/tom-osborne-nebraska-huskers-football-interview-sam-foltz-brook-berringer-mike-riley-bo-pelini

Tom Brokejaw: “We lived for a number of years in the bright sunlight at the pinnacle of college football.” The Huskers have a legacy that only a handful of programs have ever achieved, even if they never won another game. 95% of college programs in America would change places with the Huskers legacy in a heartbeat. “Coach Frost came to town after a great deal of uncertainty and tumult. The first game of his first season was literally wiped from the field by real storms in the night... Scott's second year had the low level of clouds blow away only to reveal the storm cell was much broader and much deeper than imagined.” A good percentage of national programs caught up to the Huskers in terms of what they could offer top recruits just at the same time that the Husker program was in decline. The SEC became College Football Royalty and a magnet for the very best of the available talent. Recruits began to wonder if there was any reason to go to the Upper Plains with its strong winds and isolation from media centers. “Then came COVID, the killer of seasons.” Covid did not kill the season. One, or a handful of human beings who may or may not have based that decision on good sound reasoning did that. The returns are still out on whether they got lucky and made the right choice or not. “Truly, right now, the state of our football program is still not known.” Sure it is. The Huskers finally stopped the slide and are clawing their way slowly back up the ladder. They have a coach with a vested interest in seeing that the Huskers get back up there. Motivations beyond just money and fame but State and personal pride. “I think this is as bad as it gets. The darkest moments before the dawn.” Normally, this might seem so. But now we have too many people in high places behind desks and vague agendas making decisions over our lives, including our sports lives. The Game and the Rules are changing every day. It’s tough to win a game when you’re not sure what the rules are from day to day. But Red is still Red. And the Husker legacy is set in stone. That’s a sound foundation for whatever happens. Plus, after every dawn comes another night. Got to be ready for that.

C N Red: “With all the ridiculous lawsuits these days I am thinking of filing one against the B1G for mental distress, loss of revenue, medical fees associated with depression, along with many others. Why not?” . Yes, but... no one is “required” to be a Big 10 fan. The Big 10 is not “required” to even play football or any other particular sport. It is an “Educational” association, right? These are STUDENT athletes, right? . Yes, there are legal contracts around much of this stuff having to do with media and stadiums and stuff like that. But when you strip all that away this sporting stuff is all voluntary and “Non-essential”. Given that, it’s a tough road to establish one’s self to be an injured party and demand justice and restitution in return. . Countless small businesses around the nation are suffering financially and millions have been thrown out of work. Who do they sue? The virus? The Governors? The Fates? . But there ARE other grounds for a lawsuit by the Huskers against the Big 10. Just being in a conference where you are regarded as not One Of Us Old Big 10 Legacy Boys is mental distress enough to be an aggrieved party. Does anyone believe that THE Ohio State and THE Michigans and THE Pennsylvania State really consider the Huskers to be their equal? Didn’t the Huskers already leave one conference because they ran into that same stuck-up attitude? If you want anguish, there it is. . But... if there are any Law Majors on the Huskers this law suit thing is a great idea because these guys now have time on their hands until Spring and are looking for something to do.

So, the Big 14 isn’t playing football this fall. At least, not a regular conference season. But... What if the right person in Lincoln made a call to Columbus, Ohio and said, “You guys feel like playing a 'Bowl' game in Lincoln in November or December? We decided to play the Great Plains Bowl Game as a special event for this year only. Would THE Ohio State be interest in playing the Huskers maybe on Thanksgiving Day? You make some bucks, we make some bucks, the guys get some good work in. You would?! Great. But aren’t you afraid of what the Commissioner might say? What..wait.... you all right? Why are you laughing?...

hunter49: "the cancel culture is worse than the infection!" There's something worse than that. Would your favorite football team ever had over its playbook to the entire world? That's what has happened here with Covid. Now every person on the Earth who wants to mess with the world knows how to do it ay time they want to. Just create a new virus and let it loose and then let everybody fall over in panic over it and have bureaucrats rushing to shut things down. Throw out the rest of the playbook. Everybody's already got the winning play.

What they’re saying is, Too Much We Do Not Know. We don’t know. We don’t know. The success or failure of the potential Big 12/SEC seasons will sort this out. Their attempts to play will either be a brilliant example of taking a leap of faith and being rewarded for it, or will be the dumbest thing they could have chosen by endangering the health and safety of the players when they should have known better. Either way, the Big Fourteen can just sit back and find out which of the answers is the correct one. Let the other conferences be the guinea pigs and watch for and learn from the results. This is the Game Within The Game. The Big 10/Pac 12 vs. the SEC/etc. Who will end up being the smart ones? Who will end up saying I Told You So. Who will win the PR (and recruiting) wars? Who will be The Good Guys and who will look like the villains? And will anybody be playing football in 2021?

“Our biggest concern as parents is the mental and physical well being of our sons... has taken an emotional toll... The complications of this decision will have ramifications for the futures of these athletes.” . Yes, this is true. But it's also true for every one of us and our futures as well. Everyone is experiencing mental and physical stresses and challenges. It is taking an emotional toll on us beyond what we can measure. All of our futures are in question and we have no idea what our lives will look like as time goes on. . As for the Big 14 decision-makers, there was plenty that they have done that is questionable. But the fact is that there is no easy answer to allow for play this fall or not that is without peril. You shut down the fall season, you get plenty of players and coaches and towns that rely on game revenue screaming. If you don’t shut down, you run the risk of putting thousands of people’s health at risk as well as opening up a great deal of legal liability. In other words, whatever you decide is a guess and potentially the wrong answer overall. . So-called medical experts and those who offer projections are just guessing as well. They also don’t have a clue about what they are dealing with and what the best approach is. Wearing a piece of cloth on our faces and staying six feet apart from each other. Six feet? Where did that come from? Why not five feet or ten? Where’s the peer-reviewed study of this? In other words, this is all guess work served up as “good science” and sound administration. . They key here is back to the main concerns about our physical, mental, and emotional health. We all need it. We will need it even more as these weeks and months drag on. Whether we play or not is one thing. But the much bigger game here is that we all survive this and then actually begin to THRIVE once again, not just live in fear and hope for the best. . Husker football has fought through previous pandemics: 1918 Won 2, Lost 3, Tied 1 1957 Won 1, Lost 9 1958 Won 3, Lost 7 1968 Won 6, Lost 4 1981 Won 9, Lost 3 2003 Won 10, Lost 3 2009 Won 10, Lost 4 The win-lose record of course is not as important as our getting through this major disruptor in our lives and that we do whatever we can to help each other through these rough times. Doing our best and praying for a good outcome.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/as-college-football-tries-to-play-through-a-pandemic-drastic-changes-await-in-the-sports-future/ From CBS Sports: Professionalization of college athletes on the way College football and basketball will almost certainly will be more professionalized in the future. That doesn't mean the game will necessarily be distasteful. Fans will still pack stadiums even when the next Trevor Lawrence is making $1 million from his name, image and likeness -- from his social media accounts alone. ... It's clear that players will have a seat at the table making key decisions on their education, welfare and compensation. But coaches and administrators will have to adjust, getting used to sitting across the table from marketing agents. The #WeAreUnited movement had an immediate impact with a threatened boycott. The NCAA already adopted two of their demands, though it seemed to be headed that way beforehand. A players' "bill of rights" being developed in Washington, D.C. would dramatically expand name, image and likeness opportunities. Such a bill would essentially remove all restrictions, allowing athletes to become just like their peers on campus -- able to earn unlimited compensation for their fame and intelligence. Those federal legislators are not-so-quietly aligning themselves against the NCAA. NCAA president Mark Emmert and his organization have asked Congress for antitrust protection to implement NIL. Some of those legislators have blown past that concept. They are questioning the NCAA's ability to put any restrictions on athletes earning power. "It is long past time that the NCAA should have acted on these issues," Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told ESPN. "I'm looking for legislation to obligate the universities to have rules that protect athletes."

What will we be doing on Saturdays? Looking at all the empty seats at Memorial Stadium and wondering where did everybody go? Are they doing OK? Are they healthy? Are their families and friends OK? Looking at all the businesses around Nebraska with empty chairs and closed doors. All of the vitality and life that goes on in those places that now sit mostly silent. Wondering how all the business owners are going to make it. Wondering how many are losing hope. Wondering how many are finding faith and reaching down deep to find it. Thinking about all the lives of students that have been changed. The classes they won’t attend in person. The professors they won’t remember. The memories of being together without worries about masks or social distancing or The New Normal or herd immunity or vaccines or graphs and projections that are mostly stabs in the dark. The loss of being at Husker football games and gatherings that leave blank memories with empty screens instead of vivid pictures of color and sound and fun and happiness and sadness and excitement. The cheers that have gone silent. The victories that will never be won. All the hopes and dreams that are now all on hold. So many things to do on Saturday. Everything... but the one thing we all so much want to do that most defines what Husker Nation is all about.

“...Nebraska is the new villain of its new conference, one that the establishment can mock and root against. The Big Ten offered Nebraska a lifeline in 2011, during conference realignment, when infighting made it look like the Big 12 could dissolve. The Huskers have rewarded the Big Ten with a mediocre (and getting worse) on-field product and now ... this?” So, for however long The Red are part of “THE” Big 10 (get it?), they must be thankful and submissive and sit meekly in the back of League meetings and speak only when spoken to? And the Huskers have to apologize for being “mediocre”, too? So the Big 10 Powers That Be would not be complaining if The Red came into the conference and had knocked them all half way to Tuscaloosa? Nebraska is not now nor will likely ever get any respect from the rest of the Conference. It was unfortunate that the Husker football program slipped from where it used to be. It was unfortunate that the Big 12 was/is shaky and always on the verge of breaking up. It is unfortunate that Lincoln didn’t hold the sway and influence that those in Austin do during the Big 12 days. But The Red also don’t hold the sway and influence of the old Rust Belt State universities, either. Husker faithful have been loyal and frustrated for 20 years. Nobody asked for things to develop as they did. But this is where things stand. This was all a marriage of convenience. The Big 10 might have thought they were getting the Nebraska of old and are showing frustration that “they didn’t get what they paid/ are paying for”. The Huskers are showing frustration of learning about how they are viewed by others in the Conference. This all seems to be a simmering pot. Nothing is going to happen for a while because too many things in the world are uncertain. But something is brewing under the surface and has bubbled up for all to see. The only sensible course is to keep exploring all options and looking for the right opportunity a better fit for the future. The Huskers have a bright future. Somewhere.

“Should the power to make major athletic decisions reside in the conference office or should each institution have the authority to make their own decisions based on the advice or input from the conference office?” Institutions in every form love to consolidate power into just a few favored hands. Independent thinking is rarely rewarded when groups of any kind are involved. But the question posed was, “should” the power be here or there. It is always in the best interests of any single person or institution to keep as much power and control as possible. After all, who is really going to have your best interests at heart, you or some outside person? The best answer is to keep as much power as possible but if you are going to be part of an association, be very sure that the institution really has some respect for you and your opinion and your long-term future. Otherwise, why be associated with them? In terms of The Red and The Large Fourteen, there is embedded legacy power that exists in the Middle Eastern USA and that is not going to change. Nebraska is never going to be a priority with those folks as The Red is just someone who latched on to them as the Big 12 ship was going down. People know where the real power is and likely will always be and that’s not anywhere West of Interstate 65. It just keeps coming back that Nebraska was a real power in the old Big 8 (and not just on the football field). Once The Red went to the Big 12 and now the 14, they lost that strong position and are now on a par with the middling powers.

Play Options that were available for The Large Fourteen to play a “season” in the fall: 1. Throw a “Hail Mary” and just pray that The Virus goes away or somehow you can play through a pandemic no matter what. Chances of success: About the same as any other Hail Mary. 2. Run the “Ground Game” or “Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust”. Go week to week and just grind it out. Grit your teeth. Bow those shoulders. Put your head down and plow ahead. See how it goes and pray. Finish each week’s games and watch out for what’s in that cloud of dust you played through. Chances of success: Not promising. Look at what’s going around the country right now for school systems that tried to have in-class learning. Shut downs and quarantines already. 3. Run a Reverse. Start going in one direction, then hand the season off to somebody who starts going in the other direction. Chances of success: Get ready to go out of bounds. 4. Try for a “Music City Miracle”. Just keep the last bit of hope for a season alive as long as possible, keep floating vague hopeful statements then backtrack and toss the season backwards and hope somebody catches it and doesn’t get tackled before it all ends in a heap. Chances of success: Almost nil. 5. Punt the season away. Not even worth trying. Either Quick-Kick the season away on Third Down or wait until the very end and punt it to the Spring or Fall of 2021 or even further out. Chances of success: Least likelihood of getting sued and gain the PR look of having the players “best interests” at heart. Best Option: None. There are problems in every direction they could have chosen. There was no good answer. Throw the playbook out and start drawing up play ideas in the dirt.

Chaos is going to be the modality of our lives from now on. Not just in sports but in everything else, too. It’s no surprise that players want to play. That’s what (most) players want to do without looking too much or deeply at other aspects and consequences of other options. Just comes natural to them to want to do their thing. It’s no surprise that coaches want to coach. That’s what they do, and that is the source of their very lucrative contracts. It’s no surprise that a university would want to play. You already know why. Lots of you-know-what is at stake and all that you-know-what finds its way to many places of need all around the campus and system. But... there’s the two big other elephants in the room. First, considerable legal liability for God-knows-what that could come. The League and NCAA could be in the crosshairs for any number of major lawsuits due to health risks and other concerns if and when any season is played. And the other elephant? Nobody still has a clue in what we are dealing with in terms of what this virus is, how it functions, how it mutates, how it is affecting different groups of people, and what it might do to us in the future or what its long-term affects really are. And any vaccine to come has already been declared by some experts as probably ineffective. To have a game plan you have to understand your opponent. To this point, nobody understands This Virus Opponent and so Chaos will rule our days. There is virtually no area of our lives that is not in chaos.

The Pathway To Becoming Husker Pros 1. Husker Footballers and Roundballers (and any others who wish to join) form a legal Union in some form. 2. Big Fourteen delaying or cancelling seasons creates a “breach of contract” between the “student athletes” (aka quasi-professionals) and the Big 10/NCAA. 3. In response to Big 10's “breach”, Husker unionized players form a professional association to bargain with the University and the League/NCAA (and other media partners). 4. Husker administrators side with the Huskers Players Union and seeks to sever its relationship with Big 10 and all existing media contracts due to “contract breaches”. 5. Huskers become college-level professionals and are free to seek new league associations or independent status to create new schedules every season (with any other university programs in any leagues). Note: This does not constitute legal advice or guidance but is put forth in a creative and speculative way to create useful program options.

Football in the Spring would never be awesome. Football is meant to be played with the amber sun low in the autumn sky or under thick grey overcast with strong winds howling in across the Great Plains into our mask-free faces with snow flurries gathering on our coats and hoodies to add spice to the Massive Sea of Red that fills the huge Lincoln stadium along with the hearts and souls of Husker Nation everywhere. Football is meant to played when smiling folks are outdoors raking leaves into piles while listening to radios blaring The Big Red play-by-play of yet another dominating performance against a hapless, overmatched opponent and the Husker march to another National Championship. Football is meant to be played, but not when baseball bats are cracking and basketball twine is singing sweet tunes and pucks are being slapped into the backs of hockey nets behind confused goaltenders. Football is meant to be played... but never in Springtime.

(Note: If this topic is not “unique” enough, kindly fold it into another. Thank you.) It’s time to do it. The University of Nebraska football team and university should file paperwork to become a fully “professional” program. Forget the Big Fourteen. Forget the impotent NCAA. Forget trying to make it look like major college football players are “amateurs”. Time to stop the pretending. Football players have already won the right to earn money from their likeness. I’m sure they would like to earn even more. The program “going pro” would make that happen. How do you do it? They would not play games anymore against “amateur” programs who keep wanting to keep that old dying model going. The Huskers would play against other “professional” programs. You already know who they are. The major SEC schools. The top Big Fourteen programs. The top Big 12 and Pac 12 programs. Yes, the long-awaited “Super Conference” except that now they declare themselves full-fledged professional programs at the university level. Whatever schools that want to become professional become your opponent schedule. Oh, but this takes away from the old-school tradition? That innocence of a simpler time is gone and not coming back. It was nice and we have lots of good memories. But time marches on and The Virus is not waiting to further take a wrecking ball to what our lives used to be. The huge money made by major college football programs is too necessary and addicting to go without. Waiting for consensus from conference bureaucrats and others is too confusing and paralyzing. Too many cooks in the kitchen and no one knows what the recipe is. Break free. Go your own way. Become pros representing the State of Nebraska and its major university. In a few weeks, nobody will even notice. New memories will be made. Really, is any true Husker fan going to stop being a fan if the program went pro? There’s just one thing. Whatever you do, never ever schedule a game against a certain program from a Far Southern State capital located directly south of the State of Nebraska. We don’t need to ever live that nightmare again.

With more college programs and conferences cancelling their seasons, the question to ask now is what is the long-term future of football in a Covid World. People are beginning to realize that Covid may never go away. It may always be with us as a daily plague affecting everything we do for a very long time to come. Some people are placing their faith in a vaccine. But vaccines don’t work against a virus that mutates like Covid does. It is a moving target, always one step ahead of our attempts to get at it. It sits all around us and just laughs at us. Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom many believe is some kind of scientific guru worthy of his own trading card picture set, was just quoted about the awaited-for vaccine: “The chances of it being 98% effective is not great”. They are shooting for some percentage of it working for some people, but they have no real idea. But they don’t want you to know that they have no real idea. As for football, how does anybody play football in a world where Covid doesn’t go away? You can’t play in a bubble. You can’t have hundreds (or for the pros thousands) of guys jammed in together somewhere for long periods of time and think that would work. You can’t play with masks on without suffocating. You can’t “Social Distance!” You can only go so long with “These Extraordinary Times!” and “These Challenging Times!” and all these other blaring characterizations they keep throwing at us. Players and coaches can’t live for many months apart from their family or can they be told to forfeit trying to live some kind of normal life. Colleges can’t live without those big-time dollars coming in to feed the scholastic machine. Businesses that rely on football are slowly withering away. The dominoes will fall and everything is up for grabs. Have we seen our last football game for the next two years? Five years? Forever? And if we have, how does the State of Nebraska and all of Husker Nation deal with that part of our soul being ripped out? You really have to wonder if football has a future in a Covid world.

The Cornhuskers have been playing football for generations. They’ve played through previous pandemics and World Wars. Through Great Depressions and Great Recessions. Through good times and bad. In 2020, the Huskers may try to play a shortened season amidst a stubborn virus and ongoing national turmoil. We have health advisories and bureaucrat-ordered edicts coming at us from every direction. There are more Executive Orders being thrown around today than footballs on a normal Autumn Friday night all the way from Omaha to Scottsbluff. Will fans be allowed at Husker games? Will HUSKERS be allowed at Husker games? If only Nostradamus were here to tell us. Maybe they play in front of a few fans. Maybe they play in front of no fans. Maybe they don’t play at all. One thing for sure, they’re certainly not playing before a Sea of Red. And the Sea of Red IS what Nebraska football is all about. Maybe we give the big football decision makers credit for trying to patch together a season. Who really wants to lose an entire year of football. On the other hand, can you try to play football when the other team on the field is not your real opponent? All the players on both sides of the line are playing more against the virus than they will be against each other. The Frankenstein monster was patched together from various parts. That would seem to describe the 2020 Huskers and NCAA football season as well. It just isn’t Husker football without a packed stadium of fans enjoying themselves. And not just a few fans scattered around with "Proper Social Distancing!" and wearing cloth over their faces and worried about getting sick. It is real humans sitting outside with their faces free of cloth and minds off of the problems of the world. It’s not football if you’ve got to watch out for some self-appointed-do-gooder-social-director-hall-monitor in your face because you’re doing something in the stadium or elsewhere they don’t happen to like. Whatever is to come, one thing all Husker fans can agree upon is that we want this damn virus gone and our lives to get back to normal. REAL normal, not New Normal, whatever the blank that is supposed to be. And we want to see real Husker football, not just a Frankenstein season.

“1. Your great coach might hang on until he’s no longer great. 2. Keeping an endless supply of good quarterbacks is hard, even in Los Angeles. 3. An underdog found a massive advantage, then squeezed everything they could out of it. 4. Your opponents might’ve passed a rule specially designed to undermine you. 5. You might have one class of players just outlandishly better than your competitors, and you might not be able to replace it. 6. A lower-level dynasty has to keep replacing coaches throughout. 7. Goliaths might emerge elsewhere, eliminating your margin for error.” And then, let’s add some more... Other Reasons Good/Great Programs Lose Their Way... You get complacent. You stop doing all the things that made you great. Your administration makes bad new hires when selecting replacement coaches and program leaders. You’re slow to adapt to changing times. Changes in the game, changes in competing programs, change in general. You run an offense that does not appeal to young players you are recruiting. Your coach has a lousy clubhouse and leadership manner. Favoritism in the clubhouse. Failure to create a team feeling. You had a big winning bullseye on your back, opponents brought their best against you, and you could no longer respond successfully to their challenge. You make excuses and don’t address problems in your program that you are aware of. You aren't even aware of what the problems are. A dynasty isn’t divinely inspired to last forever. Change always wins out.