Not for mass distribution, and a little bit beyond my usual vetting, so let's just say you should take these for what they're worth.
That said, a few things I'm hearing from the Big Ten's perspective tonight:
1) The original reporting, as I reported, was wrong. That's just the bottom line on this and I'm not a guy who takes any pleasure in saying that. Getting solid information is tough. Getting it out to the masses is even tougher. We have the luxury here of a message board community that, for the really good stuff, we can kind of disseminate it without drawing a ton of attention to it. That's not the case for newspapers and sometimes the stretch that we might be comfortable making shouldn't be a stretch that a newspaper is comfortable making.
I digress, and am going to immediately take advantage of that distinction I've created between us and them.
2) The athletic directors had (have) a meeting. The presidents do not. Which means they also don't have a vote. These things can change, obviously, but there was always something a little too fast about the timeline that we were all seeing. There's not necessarily an urgent need to make a decision of this magnitude, so my anticipation, as of this moment, is that we're going to see this thing stretch on a little bit from what I can only describe as a manic pace and environment today.
In every way, it reminded me of the release of the Freeh Report and the day the NCAA and Big Ten sanctions were levied. Just a total feeding frenzy which, honestly, isn't how this should be going down, not least of all to the players, coaches, personnel and their families who are so invested in all of this.
3) Penn State has a scheduled off day tomorrow. They aren't canceling practice.
4) I'm going to echo Kirk Herbstreit here, but the second piece of the puzzle that's massive that is missing on this - that also didn't really necessarily make sense - is that the decision to just full-out cancel the season didn't add up. Everything to this point has been a kicking of the can down the road. So why change that now at the start of preseason practice to completely put the kibosh on the entirety of the season?
One of the major pushes with the release of the Big Ten's revamped schedule last week was the flexibility it provided. Now, maybe that's unrealistic and ultimately, that's what is decided, but the entirety of the effort to come up with those plans and the flexibility within them doesn't make a ton of sense if none of it is taken advantage of.
In other words, if we see a decision this week or in the next couple of days even, some of the ear to the ground stuff around the league is that the expectation is for the decision to be to delay the season's start.
Maybe that ultimately means it's canceled altogether, but again, the expectation at the moment is for a less drastic decision.
(Updated 9:25 p.m.: Franklin must have heard me typing, as he now doubled down on his original statement of support for his players by urging a delay to the season rather than a flat-out cancelation.)
*****
Public opinion is a helluva drug. It's going to be interesting to see how or if today's shit show changes the calculus within the Big Ten and the other Power Five leagues.
That said, a few things I'm hearing from the Big Ten's perspective tonight:
1) The original reporting, as I reported, was wrong. That's just the bottom line on this and I'm not a guy who takes any pleasure in saying that. Getting solid information is tough. Getting it out to the masses is even tougher. We have the luxury here of a message board community that, for the really good stuff, we can kind of disseminate it without drawing a ton of attention to it. That's not the case for newspapers and sometimes the stretch that we might be comfortable making shouldn't be a stretch that a newspaper is comfortable making.
I digress, and am going to immediately take advantage of that distinction I've created between us and them.
2) The athletic directors had (have) a meeting. The presidents do not. Which means they also don't have a vote. These things can change, obviously, but there was always something a little too fast about the timeline that we were all seeing. There's not necessarily an urgent need to make a decision of this magnitude, so my anticipation, as of this moment, is that we're going to see this thing stretch on a little bit from what I can only describe as a manic pace and environment today.
In every way, it reminded me of the release of the Freeh Report and the day the NCAA and Big Ten sanctions were levied. Just a total feeding frenzy which, honestly, isn't how this should be going down, not least of all to the players, coaches, personnel and their families who are so invested in all of this.
3) Penn State has a scheduled off day tomorrow. They aren't canceling practice.
4) I'm going to echo Kirk Herbstreit here, but the second piece of the puzzle that's massive that is missing on this - that also didn't really necessarily make sense - is that the decision to just full-out cancel the season didn't add up. Everything to this point has been a kicking of the can down the road. So why change that now at the start of preseason practice to completely put the kibosh on the entirety of the season?
One of the major pushes with the release of the Big Ten's revamped schedule last week was the flexibility it provided. Now, maybe that's unrealistic and ultimately, that's what is decided, but the entirety of the effort to come up with those plans and the flexibility within them doesn't make a ton of sense if none of it is taken advantage of.
In other words, if we see a decision this week or in the next couple of days even, some of the ear to the ground stuff around the league is that the expectation is for the decision to be to delay the season's start.
Maybe that ultimately means it's canceled altogether, but again, the expectation at the moment is for a less drastic decision.
(Updated 9:25 p.m.: Franklin must have heard me typing, as he now doubled down on his original statement of support for his players by urging a delay to the season rather than a flat-out cancelation.)
*****
Public opinion is a helluva drug. It's going to be interesting to see how or if today's shit show changes the calculus within the Big Ten and the other Power Five leagues.
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