Commentary: The league will wear a Scarlet Letter forevermore

Big Ten football fans will have an interesting decision to make in the coming days and weeks when it comes to college football.

Do you cheer for games to be played, for one reason or another, or do you want to see everyone stop things down and try again at a later date?

Games are slated to start in less than two weeks and the ACC is set to get going the following week. The Big 12 and SEC will follow suit by the end of September.

Sadly, while fans of other leagues are counting down the days until their favorite season kicks off, the Big Ten (and the Pac-12) is not at the party.

The Big Ten has an invitation to the yearly party in its pocket but commissioner Kevin Warren and the league Presidents/Chancellors are unwilling to hand the keys to the car over. They also have refused to speak to the rest of the parents (leagues) to see why they are letting their sons and daughters go to the party.

It’s so unfair.

But don’t worry, if you sit this one out, we promise to get you a winter/spring season instead.

Maybe.

We’ll get back to you on that one.

There should be little faith that the league that once touted its football divisions as “Leaders” and “Legends” to figure this one out when it tucked its tail and scurried away at the first glimpse of trouble.

If we are being honest here, it never felt as if the new commissioner nor the conference Presidents and Chancellors were ever too keen on playing a season in this COVID-19 landscape.

The conference was the first to punt on non-league games and the last to release a schedule.

Six days after that schedule release, it was all over but the crying as the league had moved to postpone the season.

Vote? No vote?

Depends on who you talk to, and who you believe.

With each passing day and each additional glimpse into the “process” there is less and less reason to believe any of them.

It is a bold move to make these types of decisions with limited input from the conference Athletic Directors.

Sure, they were consulted according to a report in the Omaha World-Herald, but they were truly part of the decision making process, apparently.

How long-time and well-respected players like Ohio State’s Gene Smith and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez could be excluded from portions of the process is troubling. But even with that, all 14 league ADs wanted to at least move forward, see where things stood beyond the original start date of Sept. 3.

Warren was quick to getting on and delivering that message to the Presidents and Chancellors.

Maybe.

How are we to trust anything at this point when the new conference commissioner later came out and said that he was surprised that a decision of this magnitude would be “scrutinized” the way that this one has.

This either shows a disturbing lack of self-awareness when it comes to such an important decision or a troubling amount of self-importance believing that nobody would dare veer into a different lane of thinking.

It sure explains why Warren has done oh-so-few media appearances after a disastrous talk-back on Big Ten Network the day of the conference announcement. A sympathetic interviewer in Dave Revsine asked the right questions, sometimes twice, looking for a little bit of insight on how this decision was arrived at and what was “next."

Warren was either unprepared or unwilling to share anything. It was about as bad of an interview as I can remember in a situation of this magnitude.

Welcome to the Big Stage.

It should come as little surprise that Warren has been scarce on the media scene since then. More willing to talk about other issues on a Sports Business Journal call and letting out little drips and drabs with a pre-cleared list of national writers.

If we can’t agree that a vote of conference leaders even took place, why should anyone believe anything that is coming out of the league offices?

You know that every single person who voted against a fall season is hoping that the other conferences “come to their senses” before games are played and that the Big Ten can look like it was ahead of the curve, cared just a little bit more and just file this away into history.

It would be easy for Ohio State fans to just hope that a season does not occur either, keep the playing field somewhat level and move on to winter/spring or worst-case scenario, fall of 2021.

I don’t think that the league decision-makers should get off that easy.

Every league hitting the pause/cancel button would let the Big Ten off the mat more or less. Sure, the Big Ten would still be remembered as the first of the Power Five to postpone its season, but as time goes on, it would be remembered as the move made by all leagues more than who was first.

The correct answer here is that these other leagues need to play, to serve as a constant reminder that the Big Ten moved with haste and ignorance.

While the world watches the other Power Five leagues play games, they can reflect upon how the Big Ten refused to even allow itself a couple more weeks to check the temperature of the pool.

The Big Ten needs to wear this like a Scarlet Letter for the rest of its days. Unlike Hester Prynne however, there is no road to redemption for the Big Ten. This will be a constant reminder of how the league let its players, families and fans down without even attempting to fight for it.

Those who took high school literature know what the A stood for in Prynne’s case but the A for the Big Ten will stand for something else.

Amateurish.

Because that is exactly how this whole situation was handled.

And not for the kid of amateurism that the league claims to be trying to protect.

The league tried to derail a planned protest at its steps last week by releasing a nothing burger of an “open letter” to the Big Ten community. It may have kept those numbers small but just wait until these protests move onto campuses the following weekend, especially at Ohio State.

Just wait and see what the fervor and anger will look like as soon as the first down of football is played on the collegiate level and then when the other Power Five leagues play. The anger will be so red hot that you could sear a steak.

And it is fitting that the Big Ten offices share a space with a national Brazilian Steakhouse.

One side serves the bull and we all know what is coming out the other door.