Good morning. And we thought last week was busy. Welcome to the fourth issue of the Inside NUsletter. We hope you enjoy it. If you know someone who you think will like it, share it with them by clicking the button below.
Today, we’ll once again highlight articles we published over the last week, the latest college football news as well as some random things we found on the internet and wanted to share.
If you’ve come to expect anything from Inside NU, it’s that we don’t like to take ourselves too seriously. If it’s your first time reading, the Inside NUsletter should come off as informal but informative.
What we’ve been up to
Of course, the major news dominating the headlines this week is the fractured status of the 2020 fall football season in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maybe it seems more believable because it seemed bound to happen for weeks if not months, but at least some conferences not playing football this year is simply crazy.
Monday August 10 was arguably one of the most wild, confusing, back-and-forth days in college football Twitter history. Against rumors of an impending postponement of the season, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence helped lead the #WeWantToPlay unity movement with other Power 5 players, calling on the conferences to implement strict, uniform safety protocols, and stating its goal of ultimately forming a college football players association.
After the MAC canceled its season Saturday, the wheels began turning for the Big Ten. Dan Patrick reported Monday that B1G presidents voted 12-2 to postpone fall sports, the premature declaration of such action coming as a shock to both fans and players alike. A few coaches, a senator and the President of the United States of America all tried last-ditch efforts to change the course, while many journalists were left tired and perplexed with this ever “fluid situation” after a Big Ten spokesman later confirmed no formal vote had been taken.
Plenty of Northwestern football players, such as Trey Pugh, T.J. Green, Andrew Marty and Peyton Ramsey took to Twitter to voice their opinions on the matter. Most poignantly, sophomore defensive back Coco Azema put all of this chaos surrounding the uncertainty and sad reality in perspective:
Editor-in-chief Eli Karp examined the efforts of players to preserve their season, a role-reversal from the notion that college football would march on even with the opt-outs of several players. Even without saving their season, these efforts mark a new precedent for the bargaining power and representation of college football players nationwide. It’s hard to imagine the sport will look just as it always has. An excerpt:
“Instead, the players have actually offered administrators a fifth down after four straight uninspiring runs up the middle: give us a spot at the negotiating table to ensure uniform COVID safety guidelines, and ultimately create some kind of college football players association. Forming a union or at least representation group would almost certainly help with colleges’ liability concerns and help make a season more realistic.”
Ultimately, the following day saw the announcement that the Big Ten would postpone its 2020 fall sports season and eye the possibility of a spring season, ending months, weeks and days of speculation and uncertainty from fans and players alike.
The Inside NU staff, disappointed if not distraught, held a Zoom conference to mourn the postponement of the football season.
Grappling with these emotions, Evan Bergen Epstein constructed a rousing column examining sporting events in the age of this pandemic as a function of comfort and escapism, with the added moral dilemma of player health and safety. Here’s a snippet:
“As we continue to adjust our lives to what could be “the new normal,” it doesn’t hurt to turn an eye to the past: remember the good; remember the bad; but remember all the same, for we may be waiting for new Northwestern football memories for a while longer.”
On a lighter note shifting away from this fixation on a lack of football in the fall, it’s never too early to check in on men’s basketball. Northwestern basketball is suddenly ranked eleventh in our first Big Ten power rankings, ahead of Penn State, Minnesota and Nebraska. Optimistic? Maybe, but nearly the entirety of Chris Collins’ team is returning with more experience and poise in the face of a few rough seasons. On the top end of the table, the Big Ten has some teams with a ton of talent, namely the Fighting Illini of Illinois and the Hawkeyes of Iowa.
Finally, in the face of the Big Ten’s postponement of the football season, William Karmin, Claire Kuwana and Matt Albert took to the airwaves with their reactions on this week’s edition of Pound the Talk. Rest assured, folks, there’s plenty of Nebraska hate to go around in this one.
Things that happened
We don’t need to tell you the Big Ten postponed fall sports.
The Pac-12 Conference postponed its fall sports season, as well as all competitive sports for the rest of the calendar year, shortly after the Big Ten made its announcement. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, consulting medical experts presented the lingering heart issue caused by COVID-19, myocarditis, a condition which has sidelined Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez and may have led to the death of former Florida State basketball player Michael Ojo after he “recovered” from the virus.
While expanded rapid testing and specific social-distancing techniques may allow major conferences to hold a season in the spring, the growing knowledge of COVID-19’s health effects on young, healthy, asymptomatic will be another deterrent from allowing young men in pads to hit each other in practice and at games.
Even with the postponements of the Big Ten and Pac-12 seasons, the Big 12, ACC and SEC have not announced plans to do the same. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey released the following statement upon hearing the news of the Big Ten’s and Pac-12’s postponements:
“I look forward to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today,” Sankey said. “I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes every day.”
On Wednesday, a number of medical experts met on a Zoom call with NCAA officials, as tracked by Shannon Ryan of The Chicago Tribune.
Whether or not the remaining three Power 5 conferences ultimately play football in the coming months remains to be seen, but medical experts are certainly wary of the effect a season would have on the health and safety of all involved.
The University of Nebraska, unsurprisingly, was not satisfied with the Big Ten’s decision, as told by Mitch Sherman of The Athletic. Head coach Scott Frost, along with university president Ted Carter and athletic director Bill Moos, voiced his dissatisfaction:
“We are very disappointed in the decision by the Big Ten Conference to postpone the fall football season, as we have been and continue to be ready to play.”
Such a statement led many to speculate if the Cornhuskers could ditch the Big Ten in order to play football in 2020. Commissioner Kevin Warren, looking to put the clamps down on what’s been a publicly embarrassing situation, said that would not be happening, and Nebraska formally announced Thursday it was a committed member of the conference. Contractually, since the season was postponed instead of canceled, no B1G schools could look elsewhere.
Reflecting on the disappointment and hurt so many Americans who love college football are experiencing at this moment in time, Stewart Mandel wrote a piece sifting through the fury, relief and emptiness of a fall lacking college football. Here’s a part of the article which elicits the romance and pageantry of such a uniquely American sporting experience:
“Where do I go to find that rush that comes from watching a 4-5 team inexplicably take down the No. 2 team in the country on a Saturday in mid-November? What does one possibly substitute for that unique cocktail of edge-of-my-seat giddiness coupled with stomach-girding nerves whenever the CBS SEC game comes down to a last-second field goal?”
Several writers have penned moving articles on how college football mirrors America, both during a pandemic and not. In a particularly interesting work, Brian Phillips of The Ringer zeroed in on the differences that have defined the game and are defining what happens this fall.
To end this section on a (relatively) higher note, let’s go to the NBA bubble. Former Wildcat and current Orlando Magic two-way player Vic Law played nearly 25 minutes, shooting 2-for-6 and scoring 4 points in his squad’s penultimate game of the season.
Good tweets
This is very much how this 2020 season is shaping up. The Power Five has already switched its topic and asked for extensions, but that doesn’t mean its submission is going to end up any better.
Rodger with the most important message.
After Nebraska’s very superiority complex-fueled outburst (they were good in the ‘90s), social media had a field day. If some of those in the state — namely governor Pete Rickets and UNL athletic director Bill Moos — had even presented a semblance of caution against the virus, you might have felt more for the Huskers. But Ricketts has refused to and even pushed back on putting a mask mandate in place, while just last week Moos reiterated his desire to pack Memorial Stadium with fans, which shows he’s throwing red meat to devoted supporters or is simply living in an alternate reality.
Also some Io_a roasting, because why not?
Kain Colter was ahead of his time. A player representation group might have helped save the Big Ten’s season.
During that Zoom decompressing session, a few Inside NU staffers proposed to make our content about a. an NBA team b. a third-tier Norwegian soccer team or c. anybody who plays Nebraska
Our friends from Bloomington are not wrong here.
And, finally, how every college football fan, player, coach, journalist, etc., felt this week, and probably will feel until this season ends, whether that’s in two weeks, six weeks or sixteen weeks.
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See you next week.
Written by Colin Kruse with help from Eli Karp.