Frost’s Push to Keep Big Ten Season Alive Comes Up Short

Frost made one final push for a Big Ten season, but the powers that be felt otherwise.

A crazy week in college football continues, and its only the beginning of the week. Those involved with college football, including Scott Frost are stuck between a rock and a hard place. As we have seen in recent days, several coaches and players want to play. At the same time, many university presidents and conference commissioners feel having a season opens up a can of worms on the liability front.

August 11, 2020, will be a day to remember five years from now. It will be remembered as the day when two power five conferences put their student-athletes’ health first instead of thinking about what drives collegiate athletics; money.

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Just kidding, money is still the motivating factor. Even in cancellation,  the expenses associated with the various types of testing that will be needed in order to pull off a season is what’s really holding teams and conferences back.

The Big Ten and the PAC-12 Conferences have nailed the coffin shut on a fall football season due to ongoing concerns surrounding the coronavirus. A door remains cracked open with skeptical optimism that by spring, COVID numbers will be down, and more information will be available to help decide whether or not to hold a spring season.

With all that has taken place, if you ask anyone in Nebraska’s Athletics Department whether or not they will try to have a season this fall, it’s pretty unanimous that everyone in that building will probably tell you, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The Twitter rumors have been blowing up in the last 24 hours. One tweet from Tuesday  mentioned Nebraska in talks with the SEC. A lot of what has been swirling around is at this point hearsay.

I mean, let’s face it; we can’t even get Kevin Warren, the Big Ten Commissioner, to say whether or not the decision to cancel the fall season was unanimous or not. Most of what is floating around out there makes for great talking points on ESPN.

Frost gave it his all

During Scott Frost’s press conference held on Monday, one thing that stood out to me was his sincerity and willingness to speak his mind, especially in this challenging climate we find ourselves in.

Frost spoke candidly about what could happen to not only his players but also the City of Lincoln and the State of Nebraska if the Huskers neglect to take the field at all this year.
It was made evident during this press conference that all of Nebraska’s coaching staff and players want to play a season this fall and will do so by any means necessary. It will be interesting to see if Nebraska chooses to venture into uncharted territory and disband from the Big Ten.

Even though Nebraska wants to look elsewhere to try and play a fall season, according to Dan Patrick, who was interviewed on the Today Show, “The Big Ten owns the rights to Nebraska Football.”

According to Iowa’s Athletic Director Gary Barta,

"“My understanding of membership in the Big Ten is there’s membership criteria and playing outside of the Big Ten would violate that criteria.”"

Under normal circumstances, I would be the first to tell you that I can’t wait for Husker Football, or college football in general. However, to me, I feel everyone involved with this is losing something.

Conference commissioners and university presidents have been and will continue getting a ton of heat for having to make a tough decision. Suppose anyone believes that these university presidents and commissioners don’t want to play football. In that case, I’d say, “you’re crazy; all of these people involved want to be generating revenue to either put back into their universities or conferences.”

Money is a driving force every year the players strap on the pads. On the other side of the coin, players want to play, and coaches want to coach.

One significant factor that I think people neglect to think about is what happens if a player dies on the field. That is one real concern that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It will be interesting to see what decisions the other conferences make regarding their fall seasons and what Nebraska’s next steps will be in the coming days.

All indicators point to the roller coaster continuing, and I am strapped in and along for the ride.