I know that most of the time, I write about money and I still feel move to teach people about financial literacy. Since the pandemic, I have taken a hiatus from writing the last 6 months. Instead of taking a couple hours each week to write, I have been focussing on family time.
Lately, things have been weighing on my heart and I felt moved to write a letter on Wednesday morning. I along with many fans were disheartened to hear that the Big Ten had cancelled the fall season of sports. Honestly, I was expecting it at some point. I didn’t see how one of the most contagious diseases could be curtailed during a football season.
Despite my expectations, my heart began to change after seeing how much the players, coaches and ADs began to fight for their sport. The players felt like they were supported and that the universities were doing everything to keep them safe. This was important to me, because I am a teacher and we focus on safety in our schools all the time. If people don’t feel safe, they won’t perform at their best.
There was one other thing that really began to change my mind, postponing to a winter season. I really don’t see how a winter season will work and I don’t think it is the best thing for the players bodies. Therefore, I think we need to keep pushing back and keep fighting for the Big Ten to reverse their decision. We as fans need to fight along with the parents and players. We can’t give in, because the player, coaches and ADs need our support in fighting back against this decision.
Below is the letter that I am sending to the Big Ten Commissioner. I ask that you share it, spread the word and keep fighting for a reversal in the decision.
Dear Council of Presidents/Chancellors and BIG Commissioner,
I know that a letter from a fan probably won’t change your mind. I mean I am just a public school teacher with a masters degree. I don’t have all the medical clout and expertise that your medical team presented. Therefore, my opinion may not matter to you much, but I am going to try to come to you from the viewpoint of a fan and tell you how we are feeling.
However, I don’t look at decisions like these in a vacuum. It seems like a lot of people today want to look at COVID-19, in a vacuum of just the pandemic, and don’t look at all the variables that should influence the decision. There are more variables than just medical, but since you outlined medical reasons as the main factor for your cancellation, I am going to start there.
CDC Stats
According to CDC data, there have been 675 deaths for the age group 18-29. Now, 675 deaths are a lot, especially when you look at it in a vacuum. But let’s look at it in context, there have been 176,617 deaths from COVID-19 in 2020 and the age group from 18-29 only comprises 0.5% of the COVID-19 deaths. Every loss of life is horrible, but it shouldn’t cause us to stop living or stop playing football in this case.
I can say this because the CDC has compiled all the deaths from 2017 and listed each group and their top ten causes of death (I am using 2017, because it was the latest year of data I could find). To look at this data in comparison, we will need to double the 675 deaths to look at everything on a yearly count. So, we will use 1,350 deaths from COVID-19 in the course of a year.
The 1,350 deaths would have fallen 4th on the list of deaths for age range 15-24, behind unintentional injury (13,441), suicide (6,252) and homicide (4,905). The 1,350 deaths would have fallen 6th for age range 25-34, behind unintentional injury (25,669), suicide (7,948), homicide (5,488), heart disease (3,681) and malignant neoplasmas (3,616). So, according to this data, a healthy college atthlete playing sports is more likely to die from multiple causes, including suicide, than COVID-19.
Player Mental Health
In determining to cancel the season, commissioner Kevin Warren, stated that the health and well being of the student athletes was paramount in the decision. I believe mental health is just as important as staying healthy during a pandemic. These athletes have spent 3 months self quarantining so they can play. Instead, you took that away from them.
According to the sports psychologist at the University of Nebraska, “the psychological distress on student-athletes is ‘off the charts’ because of uncertainty created by the coronavirus. Many of them are hanging by a thread, he said, and sports provides the structure and support they need.” Nebraska has even gone as far to hire TWO more sports psychologists in the middle of a hiring freeze to help the student athletes cope with this decision.
Despite the fact that you state that you care about the health of your athletes, it doesn’t seem like mental health was even a consideration. Which seems surprising, when there are more deaths per year for college age students caused by suicide than COVID-19.
Players Felt Safe and Wanted to Play
We live in a country of freedoms, where most of the time we are allowed to make decisions and live with free will. Just like Kevin Warren’s son, he is allowed to play football this year, despite you not allowing any student athlete in the Big Ten to make that decision themselves.
We, as fans, see that the council never really discussed or asked questions of the players. You just looked at the medical advice and made a blanket dictate. No football. No choice. Just a plain and simple edict to the entire conference.
I honestly didn’t know if college football would happen this year and the decision doesn’t surprise me, however, as a fan I saw the passion of the coaches and players. They wanted to play and they wanted to coach and they felt that their safety protocols that had been put in place made for a safe environment.
You can say this was done for health and safety of players, but wasn’t that already put in place over the summer, when players were given the option to opt out of the season. Why not allow players to play that want to and let others who don’t feel it is safe to sit. That plan was already in place and the players knew there was a risk, but still wanted to play.
You never got their input, you never cared to know how they felt. Instead, it seems like you rushed the vote - to be the first conference to make the call. Sad, it shouldn’t be about being the first, but it should be about the players and nothing about this decision seems like it was about the players.
Economic Impact
Once again, commissioner Kevin Warren stated that money was not a factor in the decision. Why not? Is it not important for people to have jobs? Is it not important for the student athletes who have lost their sport because of this decision? Is it not important for these college towns that survive on the income from college football season?
My heart breaks for all the employees that have been furloughed until the end of the year at the University of Nebraska and for all the athletes at the University of Iowa who lost their sport. You have to expect more economic hardship, but I don’t know how cancelling a season for a pandemic that causes less death in college age students than suicide does is worth the pain and fear that these families will feel this year from their loss of job.
Just know that it was your decision to cancel football that has led to huge economic impacts on each and every campus in the conference.
National Relevance Impact
There are many conferences still planning to play and the college football playoff has announced that it plans to play the championship this year, without the Big Ten. You can say that doesn’t matter. But, I don’t believe that. These players play, because they want to win a championship and I’m not talking about the Big Ten Championship. I am talking about the National Championship.
You had two teams in the Top 10 that had a great chance of playing for a National Championship, but you took that away from these players. Will a college football season in January and February be as compelling. I will tell you as a fan, no. It doesn’t interest me to have the teams play in domed stadiums away from their campus. It doesn’t interest me if there is no chance to play for a national championship. It doesn’t interest me if there are no bowl games, and it better not affect 2021.
A decision like this needs to be made with a plan in place. There was no plan, heck, I don’t even think you planned on playing in the Spring. You just wanted to cancel. Now that there has been so much push back, you are contemplating a winter season.
Just like Bill Moos and Nick Saban stated, “It will be like a JV season.” And from my experience, the only people who care about a JV season are the parents.
How Can You Fix It
You don’t have to reinstate football. However, you could vote to allow the teams that want to play this season to play. It seems like a great option to me. Let Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa play. Let them take the risk. You allow them to choose and if the season gets cancelled then so be it. You recommend that the Big Ten does not play, but allow teams to choose.
You could then hold an official conference season in the winter for any of the teams that didn’t want to play in the fall. The teams that chose to play in the fall would not be eligible, but they would have the opportunity to play for a National Championship. You could give a fall Big Ten Championship for the teams that played in the fall and a spring Big Ten Championship for the competitors in the spring.
That’s one option. However, no matter what you do, you can’t save face. The PR mess has been huge and no matter what you do, the Big Ten will always have to deal with the fact that they cancelled prematurely. You didn’t listen to players, coaches or ADs. You might as well just reverse your cancellation and take the blame. It would be the right decision for the players, coaches, ADs and fans.
Sometimes the right decision is not the easy decision. Sometimes pride gets in the way. Your pride is telling you that you can’t reverse your decision. Yes you can. Things have changed since you jumped the gun and cancelled too early. Other conferences, have made the right decision to say that we are going to push a fall season, because a winter or spring season doesn’t make any sense on a players body.
Not only that, but it sounds like basketball has the possibility of starting in November maybe after Thanksgiving. How does it look to have football sidelined, while basketball is playing? Not very good in my opinion.
I listened to a report that stated sources in the Big Ten are now rooting for college football to fail this fall. To me that sounds horrible. You should never hope for failure of the other conferences, just because you want to save face. That boat is long gone. You can’t save face now, because Big Ten Country is hurting.
We see it as the conference didn’t have faith in the players or the coaches or the ADs. We see it as a lack of communication, because your coaches and players were blindsided. We see it as a lack of understanding your conference and your fan base. It doesn’t make sense that the ACC, SEC and Big XII can play, but our players in our conference can’t.
Honestly, I want the SEC, ACC, and Big XII to succeed. Here’s to fall college football, and not winter/spring JV football.
Thank you,
Seth Boschen
A Concerned Big Ten Fan
Once again, I don’t think we can give up. It is not the time to just accept the decision, but it is the time to keep fighting for the players and coaches. I know they want a chance for the National Championship.
