Report: Every Big Ten Athletic Director Wanted Fall Football
The dissenting voices and opinions in the Big Ten have made themselves known over the last two weeks since the league postponed fall sports. But until now, nobody has gone on the record to share exactly who felt there should be football this fall.
Nebraska's Athletic Director Bill Moos told Sam McKeown of the Omaha World Herald that every Big Ten athletic director wanted to play college football this fall. McKewon's column on Saturday noted that Moos, Ohio State AD Gene Smith, Penn State AD Sandy Barbour and Michigan AD Warde Manuel were among those pushing the hardest not to postpone the season, but Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren reportedly preferred the spring.
Moos said his confidence in playing this fall quickly waned after the league announced its 10-game schedule. University of Nebraksa-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green (who was also in favor of playing this fall) was keeping Moos updated on league conversations because the presidents and chancellors weren’t in the same Zoom meetings as athletic directors ... and athletic directors weren’t in the same Zoom meetings as medical personnel, either.
"(Warren) knew where we were coming from, and he was the messenger to the presidents and chancellors," Moos said, according to McKewon, who wrote that Moos noted there "was unanimous agreement" among all conference athletics directors for keeping a season in the fall.
Moos added that key people like Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez, Sandy Barbour and Gene Smith were not part of critical discussions that paved the way for the league's postponement. Instead, Warren was in the meeting with Big Ten presidents and chancellors representing the league's athletic directors.
"I knew where our people stood, but I would have liked to have been in the room when they expressed it to the commissioner and our presidents and chancellors," Moos said. "The commissioner was operating in silos, and the silos weren't connected. And, in the end, that created varying degrees of communication not being delivered."
Warren said in several national interviews last week that he'd go back and change how that process occurred if he had a do-over.
“What I would have done differently is I would have brought all the parties together,” Warren told Yahoo Sports.
Why that didn't happen in the first place is anyone's guess.
One week after announcing that the league was postponing the season, Kevin Warren came out publicly and shot down calls for the league to revisit it's decision amidst pressure from players, coaches and athletic directors. Some of the Big Ten parents gathered for a peaceful protest in front of the league headquarters outside of Chicago.
Moos' comments would seem to give credence to the report from earlier this week that Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa and Penn State were looking for ways to play football this fall, despite the Big Ten's ruling. The hold-up came when Wisconsin's and Michigan's presidents would not jump on-board with the plans that their athletic directors and teams wanted to pursue.
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