Wistrom Disciple

Definitely agreed. However, the alternative is to sit on the sidelines while the ACC & SEC play this fall. If the Big Ten would allow the teams a one year exemption to schedule for themselves, I think a lot of frustrations go away. Then get back to a normal fall next year.

I don't recall suggesting walking away from the Big Ten at any point. Nor did any Nebraska official discuss leaving. That was all media rumor and speculation looking for stories to fill their story quotas. We aren't going anywhere.

I agreed 100%. Call it scrimmages, practice or intramurals or whatever their hearts desire. If I were the Big Ten Network I would be especially pissed. Having the ACC & SEC carry on and Iowa State allowing 25k fans makes the Big Ten decision more baffling. Truth be told, they could play in empty stadiums and just put the games on TV and it'll draw millions to watch. Stopping play in the name of safety just doesn't seem justified with +30,000 kids on their campuses already.

I appreciate the analysis! Agree on these points A. Yes, all universities should reconsider several programs to move to University Club status. Sure money shouldn't rule everything but having some of these sports just to be Title IX compliant is going to help in the downfall of the NCAA. < whole different discussion. B. Got to remember that the lawsuit comes from a handful of players and not the university or coaches. C. Having the autonomy to schedule a season ourselves would be very beneficial. I do wish the conference would allow the schools to decide for themselves and just keep all games on BTN-affiliated channels so that all the schools can gain the revenue share. Disagree on these points A. Our schedule has already been set as tough so nothing new. TV coverage will improve as we win, the conference doesn't really decide that as much as the TV network does. B. Our own TV network is great in-state and regionally but as we recruit nationally, we need to have the Big Ten Network to keep our brand in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Few non-Husker fans will pay-per-view to watch our games. Losing deal. C. Hockey isn't as profitable and I don't see the regents being in a rush to put the clamps on UNO's program by putting a competing program 45 minutes away. D. It does have an icy feeling between the program and the conference offices like 2010. One difference is that the Big Ten is 1,000x more sturdy in the big picture than the Big 12 was ten years ago. Also notable is that the conference juggernaut has a large majority in support of our program and agreeing with our cause. The Big Ten doesn't seem to be as controlled by one particular school but feels more democratic as a majority rule vibe.

Personally, I like the fact that the players and attorney are continuing the push. Add in more political pressure today from the President and it's creating quite a cloud that I'm sure the Big Ten office would be happy to get rid of by now. Only solidifying how impressive DONU's administration was by being honest and transparent from the beginning. @Mavric, at this point do you see the pressure as helpful to the cause or are we basically stuck until at least after Nov. 4th before the team plays again?

Back to football... Safe to assume it will take at least one month of training/practice/camp before games would be played? With Michigan State classes online now, do we think it would take at 5-7 days from the possible announcement before the practices would start again and each school gets their kids back on campus? Add in the month and you're looking at least 30 days from any announcement to return before the first game. Reasonable?

Agreed, but those players and programs need to speak out and ramp up their voices if they truly want to play. The Big Ten players, parents and coaches were all pretty vocal the past month with the lawsuits, public interviews/conversations and regional media encouragement. Maybe it's been happening on the west coast but I have not heard about anything close to the Big Ten pumping.

Unfortunately, the Big Ten wasn't forthcoming with any information and simply hid behind the "there are too many uncertainties" line instead of providing data or answering questions. Their collective ego was strong enough that other conferences would conform if the Big Ten did it. The rapid testing concept will be their get out of the hole card. If they decide to bring football back, they'll using the rapid testing as their trump card and claim that they made the rational decisions throughout the process. Either way, let's hope they can put their egos aside and just get the drama over with already.

Sounds like a real clown. I bet he's one of the loonies who think 100,000 people show up in the fall just to see the band play at halftime and get a football game as a bonus.

Thank you, I hadn't read that before. U of M also taking that same approach or is their school president waiting for the checks to clear? Agreed, they should have had some foresight. I feel bad for the kids for what will amount to a wasted semester, maybe year while spending $10-20k

I'm not sure whether any of them have gone the full online route yet. I think many are waiting for the dorm deposits and tuition checks to clear before they flip things. Crazy, these school presidents couldn't have athletics but will welcome tens of thousands of students to live on their campuses in close proximity to one another. What a world.

Maybe gain favor of some school presidents who were privately pushing to cancel and be more like the Ivy League? Not really sure. I think they really are putting themselves in a bad spot for those TV negotiations coming up though. Going to be especially ugly if the ACC & SEC continue on.

True, these are schools. That said, the Big Ten Conference is based around Athletics. The Big Ten Alliance is based around the research and academic side of things. Do you believe Warren went to the school presidents asking for the postponement or was this spurred by the school presidents who asked Warren for his input? -- The feeling I have is that most believe it was the former with Warren recommending postponement without being prompted but without documented disclosures, it's all speculative. I'm trying to think of an analogy and the quickest one I can come up with is in regards to a corporate situation. Let's say a Healthcare provider (ABC) generally works with a company's HR department for policy details, coverages, etc. All of a sudden, ABC skips up to the Executive level of the company and leaves HR out of a major decision. Wouldn't it be prudent for HR to be included in the discussion of major decisions since they have been involved in everything leading up to the decision? -- Sure Executives/school presidents have the ultimate decision but the poorly informed tend to make foolish or hasty decisions as we are finding out here.

Is there a reason why the Athletic Directors are not the council for which the conference is working with and deciding athletic matters? Wouldn't it be more prudent if the athletics-based Big Ten Conference worked with ADs instead of having school presidents meddle in these types of things? The school presidents could decide for their own particular school if they want to participate in athletics in any given sport/year. Having them make decisions for which some of the school presidents are clearly out of touch with their own programs seems a bit out of touch to me.

That's because the school presidents who were asked voted No and were trying to save themselves from public ridicule. When I read some of the news reports mentioning how some school presidents didn't realize how important football and athletics were to their universities, it was mind-boggling that they run Big Ten institutions. Hate to inform them that alumni are not coming back to campus in the fall only to see Homecoming floats or tour their old classrooms. Thankfully, our administration has been transparent from the jump and held firm in their beliefs. Obviously it didn't bring football back but that ship has sailed it appears.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot we can do at the moment as these conference schedules are set years in advance. The next round of TV negotiations are coming up in a few years and then the conference schedule layout for the years after 2025 should also be coming out around that time. These lawsuits have likely not gained us any favor but I would be surprised if it caused the future schedule to get anymore challenging. At this point, I think Frost & Co. have us on the right footing to progress and we should be more equipped to be successful. Just hope they let us play or else it's yet another delay towards progress and development.

Yes, Iowa did put it to Ohio State in 2017. The theory goes that eventually it balances it out but it's very odd as this year (2020) would have been just the third time they played since we joined in the 2011 season. Iowa's next scheduled dates with the Buckeyes are in 2022 & 2025. So by 2025 in the 15 season since joining, we would face Ohio State a total of nine times versus Iowa's five times. Again, I don't want us to shy away from tough opponents but I would hope the conference can more closely align schedules to provide some balance.

Agreed, similar situation to Ohio State and Cincinnati. Going to be some complex in-state recruitment going on for the next 3-4 years for those guys if Cincy & Iowa State get a full schedule in and are able to filter out their senior classes like normal. Going to be harder to convince Joe Blow to attend Iowa City, waiting two or more years before getting a real crack at playing time versus going up to Ames, taking a redshirt and then competing after a year.

I'm sure he and the conference are praying for that. Still doesn't excuse the poor communications or lack of leadership so this one will stick for awhile.

Nebraska, Wisconsin & Iowa switching to online formats after Thanksgiving. Just did a brief search but safe to assume more in the conference are following a similar plan. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2020/06/17/uw-madison-uwm-reopen-fall-but-campus-life-different/3206166001/ https://www.radioiowa.com/2020/06/18/university-of-iowa-to-split-up-fall-semester-with-online-classes-after-thanksgiving/

Yes, I believe most are planning on having fairly empty campuses from Thanksgiving until the 2nd or 3rd week in January. Nebraska is for sure in that group. Nothing in person after Thanksgiving.

Confirmed, took two weeks off after decision came down to postpone. Last week was their first week back under the 12 hours rule.

I am pointing out that there has been an imbalance in the Big Ten scheduling since we got into the conference. The original post this came from mentioned how these player and parent lawsuits might produce backlash from the conference in terms of scheduling or other measures. To which my reply was that the conference has been doing us no favors in scheduling since we got into the conference. In short, yes our problems have been self-inflicted. We had a chancellor with too big of an ego who hired an AD out of his element. Fired a coach that is a proven winner, hired a feel good coach that was not a good fit. Then finally replaced the administration and brought in a competent staff who had a big group of players unready for big time college football. Start year 2 with two starters (well 1A & 1B), at a position where their size and skill mattered, kicked off the team. A kicker who lost the ability to kick and a starting RB kicked off the team mid-way. TLDR: Yes, we caused a lot of our own problems. Hopefully it's only positive from here and we win some football games... whenever the powers that be allow us to play again.

Alright, I see you're hung up on the word "stunt." Replace it with "empty gesture" and it should suffice for +90% of the athletes. Do you think it is a coincidence that they agreed to come back once reports came out that their salaries for the rest of the season would not be paid if they sat out?

They attempted a two day boycott without accomplishing anything of substance and sacrificed nothing to help the cause they threw their verbal support behind. That’s why I called it a stunt. Again, players can speak their minds until they are blue in the face. That doesn’t mean others must agree with them.