Sunday Fun Day: Chaos Is Linear

 

What was once thought impossible has happened. The end of the Big Ten regular season has come... And it made about as much sense as my 27 year old self still being in college. Over the last two weeks so many story lines have broken out as well as a bevy a canceled games which has caused this Sunday Fun Day article to encompass it all. Strap in, the road you are about to follow is about as straight as this...

The announcer mentions the annexation of Puerto Rico.. What!?

The definition of  "chaos"  as defined by Merriam Webster is "behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions." Therefore at its very core chaos cannot ever be a linear matter. By inserting the 2020 variable along with a new commissioner, one is able to properly view the the equation that was the Big Ten conference this year and how it somehow managed to do what was above stated as impossible... create linear chaos. To truly appreciate the scale of ridiculousness the conference displayed this year one has to be given a time line of every decision made since early this summer and we here at WRBL are here to give that to you.

August 5: Big Ten releases 10 game conference only schedule

I was cutting grass at the moment of this press release and nearly cut my foot off from the excitement. The Big Ten was going to play football! Part of me however found it strange that such a release was made while all of the other conferences remained quiet. As the day went on, murmurs of a secret vote by university presidents were surfacing on social media. All of a sudden this 10 game schedule seemed like a rushed plan. Three schools at the time were not even practicing because of COVID outbreaks at their facilities. But we had a schedule!

August 11: Big Ten pulls plug on fall sports

 

Not even a week after releasing a schedule, university presidents voted to pull the plug on all fall sports. The schools that voted to play were Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska. This is the moment chaos begins for the conference. In hindsight, it really seems as though New Commissioner Kevin Warren and the presidents thought the other conferences would follow the Big Tens lead and cancel as well. That did not happen. After the Pac 12 canceled the next day, the ACC (who like the Big Ten and Pac 12 have some of the most highly regarded research institutions in the world) announced they would play. The SEC and Big 12 conferences quickly followed suit and the schism between the power five conferences was created.

August 14: Big Ten Parents Speak Out Against Decision

Obviously some folks were going to be pissed. Especially those who had children who were boarder-line draft picks and needed one more year of film to cement them into the NFL. Parents called on players being able to make their own decisions on wanting to play as well as demand communication from Kevin Warren who had not even held one press conference since the cancelation of football.

August 16: Justin Fields Creates Petition to Play

The Big Ten's Best player on its best team created a petition to play and SHOCKINGLY, people listened. The petition garnered 302,359 signatures. Warren remains quiet throughout all of it.

Kevin Warren in his office.

August 19: Kevin Warren Makes First Public Comments Regarding Decision

Almost TWO weeks after making the decision to cancel football, Kevin Warren makes his first public statement about the decision not to play. The basic premise of his words centered around an uncertainty with myocarditis and testing procedures.

August 21: Parents Protest outside Big Ten Headquarters in Chicago

Fueled by frustrations with Kevin Warren and his lack of communication, parents from schools protested outside the Big Ten headquarters in Roseland demanding that the conference answer their questions. Here's a shot of what that looked like...

August 26: Parents Post Letter to Big Ten

After not being seen by anybody during their protest at headquarters, parents of players addressed a letter under "#BigTenUnited" stating there disappointment in the conference and its lack of transparency. Also mentioned in the letter were comments about commissioner Kevin Warrens failure to lead the conference and take into account all the stakeholders during the decision to cancel football.

August 27: Eight Nebraska players sue the Big Ten

From ESPN, "The group of players filed a lawsuit against the Big Ten seeking to invalidate the league's postponement of the fall football season and to award damages. The suit alleged that the Big Ten was in breach of contract by not following its governing documents and that the athletes had "the right to expect the Big Ten will follow its governing documents and all of its other rules, regulations and guidelines; will not make arbitrary and capricious decisions; and when a vote on a decision as momentous as cancelling all fall sports is announced, will conduct an actual vote." 

September 1: Donald Trump Calls Kevin Warren

This is where this whole situation hits full clown mode. Trump supposedly called Kevin Warren (who initially denied the claim) to discuss bringing football back. The Big Ten allowed its situation to get sucked into the toxic world of the 2020 presidential debacle by not being transparent. Their ineptitude led to this...

 

The Big Ten denied any talk of bringing back the season, let alone it "being on the one yard line". The lack of knowledge on the connection of COVID and myocarditis still worries the conference.

September 8: Politicians in Six States ask Warren to Reconsider

Political leaders in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska send a letter to the conference referencing other conferences playing football.

September 10: Ryan Day Discloses his Displeasure with the Conferences Decision

September 11: Nebraska Attorney General Brings into Question Legality of Postponement

Context of the questioning... Something something 1990's, something something 300+ sellouts in a row, something something there's nothing else to do here... something something Scott Frost is infallible and this is our year. Going Back to Peter Griffen for my thoughts...

Went back to the well with this video but it was necessary

September 13: Chancellors and Presidents meet to review Decision

With "new" testing information, the Big Ten chancellors met and discussed the feasibility of putting together some kind of football season.

September 16: Big Ten Announces 8 Games seasons starting October 23.

The states of Michigan, Nebraska and Pennsylvania are rejoicing for the time being... Also the Conference lays out rules that state in order to be eligible to play in the Conference Championship, you must play a minimum of six games. No way that will create a problem!

October 23 - December 12: The Season

Ten Big Ten games were canceled because of coronavirus and Nebraska, Michigan and Penn. St now wish the season never happened.

December 9: Big Ten Changes Rule on minimum number of games to allow Ohio State into Championship Game.

This is the topper to our 2020 Big Ten football cake. After the months of non-transparency and indecisiveness, the conference completely nixes a rule they put in place at the beginning. I'm not here to argue that Ohio State is not the best team in the conference but the simple fact that the rule was thrown away so fast to appease the Buckeyes and save the conferences title hopes is insane. Ohio State IS the conference at this point no matter what the other universities have to say.

Yes the conference will be able to spread the wealth that comes from that to other institutions (which is a very good thing) but the decision symbolizes the ineptitude of conference leadership throughout this entire fiasco. Any time pressure was applied to Kevin Warren, he broke. If the Big Ten had held their original stance of not playing it would have made people upset sure, but at least the conferences dignity would have been left in tact. The Big Ten walks out of this year having shattered all of cachet it had garnered over the last 100 years. "What are we doing" is the only thing left to say. 

So there is the proof that the Big Ten somehow, someway created linear chaos. At the end of it all, I suppose we should just be grateful we had a season in the first place and that in this case quantity actually outweighs quality. 

Really quick mention by the way that Iowa State is headed to its first ever Big 12 Championship! They are a solid squad that relies on a stout defense and the leading rusher in the country Breece Hall. Matt Campbell deserves a ton of credit for the turn around job and it is safe to say he won't be in Ames much longer. Look out Dallas, the Cyclones are coming!

Now to league matters. Here are the current standings as we head into the final two weeks of the season!

Four individuals have separated themselves and are the only ones with a real shot at winning first prize. Tyler has further separated himself as the favorite amongst them and is inching closer to claiming the Golden Busch Light NA Can as he has built up a 21 point lead over second place Buddy. He did so on the back of a fantastic 7-3 week which saw him gain 45 points. Tyler's consistency is why he finds himself at the top for the moment. Another player recorded a 7-3 record this week and that was Luke. Luke has come out of the wood work to find himself with an outside shot at the title with only 37 points separating him from Tyler. Buddy had another solid week going 6-4 and finds himself 21 points back and in second place. Brent slipped a little bit with a week of 5-5 but still sits in third place with a real shot to overcome early season woes. Now for the rest of us.

While its still mathematically possible for any of us to win, its a long shot. We are all basically trying our best to catch second place and win our money back. My overall record has slipped below .500 for the first time this year after another 3-7 week of misery. I just want to remind everybody that I sat at or near the top for most of the year. You could simply say I moronically "threw" my dreams of glory away... kind of like this.

Literally cost his school 2 million dollars because they cant get playoff money

After I claimed in the first Tuesday Ticker article that Teddy was somebody to watch, he has done nothing but post 5-5 and 4-6 records that equal only one thing... mediocrity. Seriously, Teddy has had chances every week and continues to fail. Teddy's performance can be summed up by Navy running a fullback dive on 3rd and 10 against Army over the weekend. Hilarious, but not equitable. Speaking of not equitable, Ethan and his entire early season successes have gone for not. He posted a 4-6 week and since week four has been suffocating himself with his own stink. 

Ethan suffocating in his stink

Blake is trying to mount somewhat of comeback after recording his highest point total this past week while going 6-4 and amassing 36 points. In the end though, Blake killed himself with a string of horrible weeks in the middle of the season. He can still reach second place, but he will need to post 45+ point weeks each of the next two weeks, something he has not done even once yet.

I'd be remiss not to mention that Ben finally broke out of his points coma and scored 42 points while going 6-4. This is the first time all year Ben has posted 6 or more wins and the first time he has even cracked 30 points! To this note, there was much rejoicing.

And last but not least there's Dalton. The league as a whole owes Dalton a world of gratitude for keeping the furnace running all year down in the depths of the WRBL basement. To his credit however, he's been OK since the midway point of the season posting mainly 5-5 records. The damage at the beginning of the year though was to great. But Dalton seriously, Thank you for all you do in keeping the rest of us warm.

That wraps up this installment of Sunday Fun Day. The articles are going to be rolling out fast in the next week with another Tuesday Ticker and Power Rankings next week so be sure to catch up on all things WRBL and Big Ten!