President Schlissel Got It Wrong, Michigan Should Be Playing Football

Michigan's president was one of 11 who voted in favor of postponing football this fall.

Well, I never thought I'd write a title like that, but welcome to 2020.

Per Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, the Big Ten presidents did vote on whether or not to have football this fall and the results were actually pretty one sided.

Big Ten presidents and chancellors voted 11-3 to postpone the fall college football season due to health and safety concerns tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a brief and two sworn affidavits filed by the league on Monday.

Per a league source, the three dissenting votes were Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio State.

Obviously that means that University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel voted to postpone the season, which actually isn't very surprising.

As an immunologist at a very esteemed academic institution, Schlissel was always going to err on the side of caution no matter what the numbers suggested. Even though Michigan reported ZERO positive cases during the entire month of August, football won't be played in Ann Arbor this fall.

Per reports by The Detroit Free Press after speaking with athletic director Warde Manuel, that could result in losing more than $100 million. 

Wow.

Schlissel isn't a sports guy, but he is a smart guy. Losing that kind of money and seeing the backlash that has followed the decision has to have him thinking that maybe he voted incorrectly.

So Schlissel and 10 others said no, while Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska said, "Let's get it!" It's no surprise that the Buckeyes want football. It's a way of life in Columbus more than it is anywhere else in the Big Ten. Iowa and Nebraska also voted to keep football in the fall, which also isn't surprising given their locations and low number of COVID cases compared to other states (Michigan has 20,000 more cases than Iowa and Nebraska combined). 

But guess who else now wants football back in the Big Ten?

Had a very productive conversation with Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, about immediately starting up Big Ten football. Would be good (great!) for everyone - Players, Fans, Country. On the one yard line!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020

Look, I don't care where you stand when it comes to politics, but the freaking President of the United States is now trying to get Michigan football back on the field.

We know where Jim Harbaugh, the players, the parents of the players and apparently Donald Trump all stand, so why isn't Michigan getting ready to play in a few days?

That's the million dollar question.

In a year, or five, or ten, we'll all look back on these decisions and we'll be able to determine who was right and who was wrong. Obviously Schlissel thinks he's right right now, but I'm not so sure anymore, and I've taken the pandemic very seriously. I have an infant son and my wife's parents are definitely approaching the danger zone when it comes to their age, so we've been as careful as possible. I've stayed home, wore a mask, washed my hands vigorously and applied more hand sanitizer than I ever have in my life, but it really seems like playing football is doable.

Across the country, 36 states are playing high school football. In just a couple of days, a small handful of colleges are going to kickoff the 2020 season and in about 10 days, three of the five Power 5 conferences are going to run out onto the field like any other fall Saturday. But not Michigan. That just seems off.

I think Schlissel and the other presidents voted to postpone football with good intentions, but I think they got it wrong. I'm with Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska. And the ACC, Big 12 and SEC. I think football should be on. It does feel like we could see some action in October, and almost definitely by November, but that's not this weekend. At this point, the sooner we see Big Ten and Michigan football the better, and it's only going to get worse after watching everyone else play next weekend.