Inside NUsletter Issue 7
The Pac-12 makes a splash while the Big Ten speaks with the President of the United States.
Good morning. Welcome to what is somehow the seventh issue of the Inside NUsletter. We hope you enjoy it. If you like what you’re reading, feel free to share or subscribe!
Today, like always, we’ll be highlighting some of our articles from the past week, some of the craziness that took place in the realm of college football as well as some random stuff we found on the Internet that was enjoyable.
If you’ve come to expect anything from Inside NU, it’s that we don’t like to take ourselves too seriously. If this is your first time reading, the Inside NUsletter should come off as informal but informative. Let’s get into it.
What we’ve been up to
Just when you thought the Big Ten drama couldn’t get any crazier, it did, and we’ve spent the past week trying to make sense of the madness. After reports began to circulate that the Big Ten might play a shortened season beginning around Thanksgiving or even as early as October 10, Inside NU co-editor-in-chief Eli Karp broke down the rumors circulating the conference and college football.
The idea of a late fall season is exciting, but it seems to stray too far from reality, he wrote:
“While the Big Ten beginning play in late November would be welcomed from a standpoint of football returning this fall, it simply doesn’t seem justifiable. If the Big Ten were to approve this plan, what’s the big difference in that than starting sometime in October, which the conference may have been able to do if it had delayed its decision to postpone the season? The SEC by comparison opens its season September 26.”
We’ll get to that potential big difference later on.
With the first real college football game being played last weekend between Central Arkansas and Austin Peay, other conferences prepare to start their seasons, only elevating the Big Ten’s commotion to new heights. Since other colleges and leagues have claimed to keep their positive tests under control, it only puts the B1G’s decision further in question. Besides parents, athletes and fans, a new voice emerged to dissent the conference’s decision: United States President Donald Trump.
The President reportedly spoke with the Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren on Tuesday in hopes of convincing him to bring back the fall season and offered to provide the conference with rapid tests. However, Trump did not extend the same offer to the Pac-12 (or MAC or Mountain West) which many tie to the fact that Big Ten country contains a number of swing states for the November election. If the decision to postpone hadn’t already been labeled political, oh boy.
On this week’s episode of Pound the Talk, Matt, Claire and Will discussed the new role politics plays in college football, and the Big Ten in particular, as well as the flying rumors that have taken the Twitterverse by storm.
As hypotheticals for this year’s football season continue to resurface, we proposed one of our own. Mac Stone broke down the idea of playing a six-game season with only a divisional schedule during the regular season and a Big Ten football tournament as the postseason. Everyone likes postseason tournaments. They’re fun! Especially if there’s not going to be a College Football Playoff for the B1G, why can’t we have the Big Ten playoffs? Nobody really knows what will happen with football this fall (or winter/spring), but we can dream.
Finally, while fall athletes have gotten all the attention as of late, Dan Olinger brought new opinions to light and spoke with a number of Northwestern winter athletes about their reaction to the postponement of fall sports as they await decisions on their upcoming seasons. Here is a snippet of one athlete’s perspective:
“You never could have predicted this, and it really makes you put into perspective that you can’t take the sport you love for granted, because the air does come out of the ball at some point, and for a lot of us it’s happening a lot sooner than expected.”
What happened this week
As if this week could have been more chaotic than the last.
Wait, what’s that? It was?
Indeed. The eight Nebraska players’ lawsuit against the Big Ten won some details from the conference, namely proof of an 11-3 vote to postpone the season based on information given by the medical groups that represent all 14 Big Ten schools. The three teams to vote against postponement were Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa, reporters relayed through a league source. We also learned conference bylaws require at least 60 percent of presidents (at least 9) vote to postpone the season. The suit isn’t over just yet, though, as the judge presiding the case wants to see more vote-related documents from the conference.
Of course, that didn’t stop some from trying to keep the football season alive. As previously mentioned, President Donald Trump has always been in favor of college football being played this fall, so he hopped on a phone call, facilitated by commentator Clay Travis, with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren to discuss the possibility of reversing course and playing this fall. One key detail of the discussion was Trump’s offering of new Abbott BinaxNOW rapid COVID tests from the national stockpile. The President himself called the conversation “very productive,” wording similar to that used in a statement the conference later put out.
This tweet caused some rumors to swirl, many of which suggested that the B1G was looking to reverse course. Various reports surfaced on possible start dates, including just a couple of days ago one that suggested the Big Ten may be targeting an October 10 start date for the football season. This report, however, was shut down fairly quickly by CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd and seems unlikely, with Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta telling reporters it would take a medical miracle. Barta, however, said there’s been encouraging signs the season might be able to start before the second semester (2021).
Out west, the Pac-12 announced Thursday a groundbreaking partnership with Quidel Corporation which will help provide daily COVID-19 rapid response testing for their athletes. The machines for the testing will arrive by the end of September, which was, according to Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, a key issue in the decision regarding the postponement of the Pac-12’s fall sports seasons.
According to commissioner Larry Scott, when the conference made the decision to postpone the season, they thought this type of rapid testing technology wouldn’t be available until at least November. However, state and local guidelines prohibit six schools in California and Oregon from practicing at this time, making it seem the earliest potential return to action would be around Thanksgiving. Interestingly, Scott said he and Warren have spoken quite a bit, and the Pac-12 wants to align its schedule with the Big Ten.
Shifting gears into the college basketball world, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein recently reported Texas will be the fourth team to participate in the men’s basketball 2021 Legends Classic. The other three teams participating include UCLA, Virginia and your very own Wildcats, who are coming off of an 8-23 season in which they won just three conference games, in case anyone forgot.
For now, though, let’s focus on the potential for this upcoming season. Tuesday, Rothstein also reported that the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee would propose a November 25 start date to the Division I Council for the 2020-21 basketball season. The season is currently scheduled to start November 10.
It had already been reported that many in college basketball were looking at the period between Thanksgiving and the New Year as a prime opportunity to play, given there’d be few students on college campuses during winter break. The Council is set to vote on the start date later this month, and based on these rapid testing developments and people proactively planning for a season, the prospects of basketball are as positive as they’ve been.
Finally, in other non-sport-but-Northwestern-related news, NU made the decision this past week to bring back only juniors and seniors to campus this fall, along with graduate students, much to the dismay of the classes of ‘23 and ‘24. University President Morton Schapiro later cited the uptick in cases in suburban Cook County and what the administration began to see as inadequate quarantine and isolation housing as reasons for the reversal.
The plan is now for incoming freshmen and sophomores to return to campus at the beginning of winter quarter. How this may impact the return of fall sports and the start winter sports remains to be seen, though it was clear in NU’s announcement that student-athletes are exempt from this decision.
One more thing: college football is officially back, at least in some capacity. Last Saturday, Central Arkansas defeated Austin Peay 24-17 in a thrilling game that saw 2,000 fans fill the seats. Last night saw the return of FBS football with Southern Mississippi hosting South Alabama, and UAB hosting FCS foe Central Arkansas, which may play quite a few times before other teams begin their seasons. Other notable teams playing Saturday include SMU, Memphis and Army. The weekend will conclude with a Labor Day matchup between BYU and Navy. If you’re keeping track, Northwestern would have opened the season tomorrow at Michigan State (and then Penn State).
Good Tweets
Your favorite section, right?
As mentioned previously, the football season commenced last weekend between Central Arkansas and Austin Peay. The highlight of the game for Austin Peay, aside from its first play from scrimmage going 75 yards for a touchdown, had to be this glorious stat line from quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall.
Of course, it’s always good for us to squeeze in some self promotion as rumors with both facts and reactions swirl through the interweb.
Remember when we said the Big Ten wasn’t playing a football season? If two tweets above wasn’t enough proof, here’s more.
Rumor has it the initial over/under for the number of Rutger wins in the Pac-12 is being set at 2.5, which is at least 1.5 more than it’s currently set in the B1G.
On Wednesday, Georgia quarterback Jamie Newman announced that he would be opting out of the upcoming season to prepare for the NFL Draft. Luckily, the Bulldogs have a suitable replacement in USC transfer JT Daniels, who has plenty of talent.
And finally, our Nebraska bit for the issue, because any opportunity not taken to roast the Huskers is a missed one.
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Written by Mac Stone and Lia Assimakopoulos with help from Eli Karp