re: Ohio State QB Justin Fields creates petition to reinstate Big Ten football season

quote:

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Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he and president-elect Kristina Johnson both advocated to delay to the start of a fall season rather than postpone to the spring.

“President-elect Johnson and I were totally aligned in our efforts to delay the start of the season rather than postpone,” Smith said in a statement. “I am so grateful to her for all her efforts in support of our student-athletes and a traditional fall season.

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This seems like PR damage control. Who in that conference has a big enough dick to slap Ohio State down if all they wanted to do was delay it like the SEC? I can’t imagine that they stood up and made an impassioned argument, but were either shouted down or ignored. From afar, I can’t see anyone who has that kind of juice.

Let me get this out of the way—no matter how pissed they may be (if you believe what I re-quoted above), they are not leaving the Big 10. Ever.

And while I do think there may be some unquantifiable long-term negative effects, I’m not sure how much this hurts Ohio State in the short-term. They’ve got a machine rolling along really strongly right now. Their ridiculous recruiting class seems to have avoided a mass exodus. And why would it? They’ll be back playing next fall when the ‘21 class can 1st play. If they survived a post-season ban and kept humming right along, I’m not sure why this would hurt their ‘21 recruiting class enough to make much of a difference.

Obviously, the Big 10 schools will lose a lot of money by not playing. But I think OSU, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, etc...will be fine eventually. What I think may have an effect, though, is all the advertising the SEC/ACC/BIG 12 will be getting all season. All those schools will be featured much more this year on tv, radio, social media—it will incredibly powerful in underscoring their brands. There could be some long-term effects for that, but we’ll see.,