On Tuesday, the Southeast Conference presented protocols for enthusiasts to attend the school’s football games this fall. It is necessary to cover the face in the nose and mouth when entering / leaving / moving to the stadium and when social distance is possible.
On Tuesday, North Carolina coach Mack Brown presented a positive outlook for Atlantic Coast Conference football, saying the effects of coronavirus tests returned within 24 hours.
Tuesday’s Big Ten conference … remained silent.
As opposition to last week’s Resolution of the Big Ten to postpone fall sports grew stronger, league commissioner Kevin Warren began his seventh consecutive day of media silence.
Not football, not at the Big Ten and Pacific-12 conference.
Football, at full speed in SEC, ACC and Big 12.
This is the wild state of 2020 school football: a fatal pandemic, a conference-versus-conference bird game. No wonder feelings are awakened. No wonder the father of a first-round pick for the state of Ohio on Monday night bought a plane ticket from Orlando to Chicago. Randy Wade, the father of Buckeyes’ defensive back star Shaun Wade, invited others to sign up for him as he sought to win an audience with Warren Friday morning at Big Ten’s offices in Rosemont, Illinois.
Gary Koerner, the father of Iowa safety, Jack Koerner, tweeted that the parents of Hawkeyes players, who last Friday was the First Big Ten Organized and Pro football organization will also be present.
The frustration of parents is the lack of transparency of the Big Ten. An investigation through the Des Moines Registry monday morning on whether the Big Ten would meet or respond to parents was left unanswered 24 hours later.
Was there a vote through the presidents and chancellors or not? Now it’s a question, with the president of Minnesota saying, “We don’t vote according to the se,” but we came to a conclusion from the organization. We know that Iowa President Bruce Harreld and senior director Gary Barta were actively campaigning for an fall season.
What medical knowledge was used to make the fall decision? The Pac-12 has arrived; Big Ten didn’t, as other leagues that make plans to play cited medical recommendations to move on. The Big 12 was based on Mayo Clinic cardiologist Michael Ackerman, who said it would be a “scientific error” to conclude that COVID-19 leads to myocarditis in athletes ages 18 to 24.
However, NCAA medical director Brian Hainline said over the weekend that “everything aligns perfectly” to ensure that fall sports are practiced safely given the current state of the pandemic across the country.
So we’re. Conference vs. No. Conference.
It may well be that the Big Ten is validated through its resolution of disconnecting football, given the party we already see on school campuses.
However, the deployment of deferral through the Big Ten is nothing less than an amateur hour. And it looks worse over time.
The advent of saliva controls for the coronavirus, designed to produce rapid effects at a fraction of the cost, gives hope only to school football, but to schools in general. Last weekend, a saliva check was developed at Yale in partnership with the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association obtained FDA emergency use approval.
However, the Big Ten deserves to have known that such control was close for earlier use. The University of Illinois, one of its flagship universities, has been conducting saliva control for months and announced on August 10 its ability to expand those controls nationwide. They plan to review each and every student and college member (about 60,000 more people) twice a week during the fall semester.
Could we see that school football systems are tested at a much higher frequency until the end of September?
However, this progression has been ignored. A day later, after the Illinois announcement, the Big Ten officially closes fall sports anyway.
Why cancel then? Why not now? We want answers.
The Big Ten spoils this one, and it’s smart for football parents to call them.
The follow-up question remains: can the resolution of the Big Ten be revoked? Of course, it can only be logistically. Again, that doesn’t mean it’s 100 percent safe. The convention game does not start on Big 12 or SEC until September 26. Iowa players, for example, were excluded this week from team activities, but were scheduled to resume weightlifting and conditioning until Monday. It is realistic to recommend that players be able to play in another five and a half weeks.
Did the ten Big Ten presidents participate that players would potentially unionize to make their decision? We don’t know. Would they be ready to change the course of fall football if the fast and reasonable saliva tests proved to be the biggest progression in the safety of students and athletes? We don’t know.
Will Big Ten’s parents have an audience with Warren on Friday? We don’t knowArray.. stay tuned. Their voices cannot be ignored forever.