In a parallel universe this would be game week for Ohio State.

The Buckeyes would either be preparing for Bowling Green, according to the first version of their schedule, or for a Thursday night game at Illinois in the short-lived schedule 2.0 redux.

Neither of those scenarios are reality however, and while it may feel that we are living in some sort of an alternate reality, this is the one we are stuck with.

A reality where the Big Ten will sit on the sidelines as other leagues play football.

One where there are no answers and truths be told, no attempt by conference leadership to provide any clarity. One where the conference seemingly is going out of its way NOT to provide any answers.

Who is at fault? Is it commissioner Kevin Warren? Is it the conference presidents and chancellors (COC/P)?

Does it really matter?

Big Ten fans had an opportunity to watch the first game of the season take place on Saturday night as Division I-FCS teams were showcased with Central Arkansas pulling out a thrilling back-and-forth win over Austin Peay on national television. Quite the stage for the often-overlooked smaller classification of Division-I football.

Two teams that have a fraction of the resources of the Big Ten pulled off a game, with fans in the stands no less.

Silence from the Big Ten.

For those who spent the weekend watching football, there was plenty of high school action to be seen, from various parts of the country.

Can we get something more than a form letter of a press release from the Big Ten?

Pickerington Central high school hosted in-town rival Pickerington North for a national telecast just 24 miles from Ohio Stadium, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

High school football is a go in Ohio but not Ohio State football.

That is not an Ohio decision, that is a Big Ten decision.

Is there anyone there?

Well, we all know that nobody in a position of power has set foot in the Big Ten offices for quite some time. It would not be surprising if Kevin Warren would struggle to find the Big Ten offices as he has been holed up in Minneapolis, granting few interviews and answering even less questions since “postponing” the Big Ten football season.

If not for a few in the national media that seem to have his Minnesota number, we honestly wouldn't even know if he was in the country right now, or not.

And let’s call this what it is, this is not some temporary postponement of the football season, it is an absolute neutering of the Big Ten season.

If the fervor were not there from everyone else involved, would a season even be on the table?

Play the season in January, or in late November, it really doesn’t matter.

The Big Ten won’t have a seat at the table for the College Football Playoff.

Critics may point out that the Big Ten has not had a seat during several years of the four-team playoff.

Ohio State’s No. 2 preseason rankings in both the AP and coaches polls this year would lead most to believe that the Buckeyes would be part of the four-team party at the end of the season.

Guess that is academic now.

Sure, the Big Ten was late to the party in the Bowl Coalition.

The Big Ten didn’t lead the push toward a playoff either.

The conference has always marched to its own drumbeat, believing that it can stand on its own, regardless of what other leagues were doing.

Now it stands alone (okay, with the Pac-12, but that is small consolation) while the rest of the college football world gets ready to start competition.

And it's a punchline to numerous jokes.

It is too early to know what the immediate fallout of the Central Arkansas/Austin Peay game will be. Programs can only put guidelines on what their own athletes are able to do and once you bring a team in a different jersey, with different protocols into the mix, you lose a lot of control of the situation.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of numbers come out of the first week(s) of competition.

These other leagues were working toward the goal of playing football while the Big Ten (and Pac-12) work running in the opposite direction, looking for any reason NOT to play football.

Even after the Big Ten released a statement (its lone piece of communication with just about everyone) stating that a vote did in fact take place, few people seem to take that at face value. The conference has gone out of its way to provide a smokescreen cover for everyone involved.

Well, not everyone.

Players be damned.

A handful of games will be played this week with the ACC and Big 12 getting things started for real the following week and the SEC starting its league-only schedule at the end of the month.

Lots can happen between now and the time that the SEC would start playing football, and probably will. This is not going to be a smooth ride but appears to be a manageable one.

While everyone else tries to sort out what the next month will be like, we can tell you one thing that we know for certain.

The Big Ten won’t be playing a single down of football.

What about Thanksgiving? What about that plan?

For those who have not been following along, there was a trial balloon floated out there about playing a Big Ten season starting shortly after Thanksgiving, meaning that the Big Ten could start its season against conference championship games and have the College Football Playoff going on right around the time that Rutgers and Maryland play one another (hypothetically, no schedules have been formulated for this situation).

If you can be ready to play in late-November, why can’t you try and be ready to play by mid-October, attempt to align with the other schedules and find a way to compete for the actual national championship?

There are too many people within the 15 decision makers (Warren plus COC/P) who are too dug in on this issue.

Players want to play, and the ones who don’t are free to opt out. Some already have, and if the Big Ten moved closer to a real scenario and put its full weight behind it, others might opt out as well.

Most won’t.

Coaches want to coach, and athletic directors want to see things move forward in a safe manner.

They have doomsday budget scenarios staring at them as they will be forced to make difficult decisions in terms of what entire athletic departments will look like on the back end of this.

A January or November season won’t solve this. It may be too late for an October season to save everyone, but it would go a long way in making ends meet.

Just to add to the folly of this all, someone at the Big Ten or a marketing firm representing the Big Ten decided it would be smart to tweet about the #B1GDifference over the weekend.

Things went about as well as you would expect.

The Big Ten was ratioed.

What exactly is ratioed?

2:1? Try better than 5:1.

And who were those 90-plus people who 'liked' that tweet in the first place?

You have to think this was a scheduled tweet that someone did not get back to and that the conference just had to ride with it. There is no way that the league could be that tone deaf, to put that tweet out only a handful of hours after the first college football game went off to what appears at this early moment to be a tremendous success.

You can’t put that kind of message out there as three of the Power Five leagues are looking forward to college football with games starting back up in just a couple of days while you have provided zero information to your athletes, families and fans.

It is obvious that the Big Ten is hoping beyond hope that College Football does not happen, that the whole thing is torn down after a week and that it will be in the position to say, ‘Told you so’ to everyone else and say it was right all along.

You know what? That may happen.

But at least other leagues gave it the old ‘college try’ while the Big Ten showed the world how not to handle a crisis situation.

The Big Ten got one thing right.

There is a #B1GDifference between leagues.