COLUMN: Anger Was Never Over Kevin Warren’s Clunky Rollout But An Unpleasant Result

Unfortunately, all a commissioner's letter did was reinforce the anger in Big Ten country over the fall sports being gone was never about process, logic and reason. It was about an unsatisfying result.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- So, Kevin Warren did everything you wanted, right?

The squeaky complaint wheels of the Aug. 11, 2020 league decision to eliminate the fall sports calendar in the Big Ten Conference demanded to be greased with transparency.

You, the passionate college football fan (yeah, sure, let’s go with that) didn’t just want answers. You demanded answers. You, the single-minded football coach, wanted to do what you know how to do, coach. You, the fervent parent of a Big Ten football player, challenged the authority on behalf of their child. And truth be told, all of those constituencies short of the first one had every right to be angered over the lack of communication. It likely would’ve been more productive to direct that anger and frustration at the 14 members of the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors but hey, telling anybody in 2020 who to properly be angry with has about the same success rate of trying to plug a leak in the Hoover Dam with bubble gum.

So, Warren put everything you wanted in writing - a two-page open letter. 

Maybe the new Big Ten commissioner released the letter, which nobody believes he wrote himself, because he’s read all the vicious social media posts on his eight-month administration tenure. Maybe the 14 members of Big Ten COP/C thought it was finally appropriate to let him speak after they had their passive aggressive fun at his expense for just over a week. Maybe it was the result of the a baker’s dozen of Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by Thomas Mars. For those who have forgotten Mars is the attorney whose recent claim to fame is helping a Mississippi State 247Sports.com reporter to expose the extra curricular rub and tug behavior of Hugh Freeze while he was the Ole Miss head football coach. Whatever the reason, Warren did what you asked. He owned this decision even though it never was, still isn’t and will never be his in the first place. In the two-page letter he released the reasons, in six bullet points, to why the Big Ten’s 14 most powerful human beings ended the 2020 fall sports season calendar and did so while also confirming what those university leaders wouldn’t. Yes, there was a vote and no, it wasn’t as close as you think it was.

#BigTen Commissioner Kevin Warren gives some insight into his thought process behind the postponement of all fall sports, including #CFB, during our #SBJRoadAhead finale. pic.twitter.com/T4UlBCce4B

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) August 19, 2020

You wanted answers. You wanted them in writing. You wanted them to based in science and you wanted those answers to be led by medical professionals specifically assigned to monitor the health, safety and well-being of these young adult college athletes. So, we’re all good now right?

No? You still aren’t happy?

How come? Oh, let me take a guess as to why.

It was never about the lack of transparency, was it? It was never about the awkward nature of releasing a schedule and then less than a week later saying the season was over, was it? It wasn't even really about where Warren's son plays college football, was it?

You, the passionate Big Ten fan, wanted your football in the fall given back to you like it was something you owned. You wanted your possession given back by the Big Ten commissioner most of you ultimately and wrongfully blamed for taking it away in the first place. COVID-19 took away the 2020 NCAA Tournament. COVID-19, and this nation’s response to it, ultimately took away the Big Ten’s fall sports season. The result is what you were angry about. The result being overturned is only what you truly wanted. I’m guessing a lot of people didn’t read past the third line of Warren’s letter that read “the vote by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) was overwhelmingly in support of postponing fall sports and will not be revisited.” Anything past those 26 words were basically irrelevant to you. See, nothing after that was going to quench your addiction to your Saturday fall entertainment not being there to comfort you. You, the Ohio State fan, wanted to see another run at College Football Playoff berth and possibly a national championship. You, the Illinois fan, wanted to see if this truly was a breakout year for the program. No matter how old you are, you, that pesky Nebraska fan have known what your weekend revolves around every year when the leaves change color and the weather turns cold. Some may point out it may be a tad short sighted thinking during a virus pandemic that continues to make folks sick and kill people but hey, who am I to judge anybody’s priority list?

Warren’s letter was supposed to expose, to those who said they wanted it, the logic, reason, science and medicine that formulated a tumultuous decision. Problem is, all it did was expose the true reason for anger directed at the conference office in Rosemont, Ill.

Big Ten football isn’t coming back this fall. And nothing short of getting that feeling back was going to satisfy a majority of this angry mob. Process and reason be damned.