The Question:

BLACK, BROWN, OR GRAY SQUIRRELS?

Ace: I have photos for this.

Brian: Focus guys, there's news. Hockey is back.

Seth: What about the months of content we had planned? I was just getting ready to post Round 1 of the Draftageddon of Past Draftageddons.

Next week Heiko drafts a goat.

BiSB: The plural is "Draftsageddon"

The Mathlete: This is the most MGoBlog comment of all time.

Brian: First overall pick is the one where Heiko drafted Kirk Cousins to play OL.

Ace: We’re getting closer…

BiSB: Speaking of sports where sometimes you run out of dudes at a position group...

FOOTBALL BACK.

Brian:

pic.twitter.com/y5viQaBtWv

— Pat Fitzgerald (@coachfitz51) September 16, 2020

Ace: Feeling for the Northwestern players who had to quarantine in Lake Michigan.

BiSB: Cant' catch a respiratory virus if you don't respirate. Also can't coordinate any union activity.

Ace: Let’s get ready to compartmentaliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiize. The good news is we’ve covered college sports long enough to be well-practiced at this.

BiSB: Do you think Fitz didn't know what the word "quarantine" meant, and was too afraid to ask anyone, so that was his solution?

Brian: Anyone associated with Northwestern football knows what quarantine means because they were quarantined from the endzone last year amirite

Ace: It feels good to get these jokes off again. Context be damned.

[After THE JUMP: Who's in?]

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Brian: There are definitely a few schools in the conference who are like YES FOOTBALL IS BACK ... and then they remember.

TFW you were sure that test was going to be canceled. [Bryan Fuller]

Seth: The rumor that Michigan State and Maryland were going to sit this one out was the best of easily debunked but plausible COVID season rumors.

Brian: Okay, how about some TOPICS?

On a scale of 1-10 rate the Big Ten's overall approach to fall sports, from cancelling to reinstating?

This could have gone much worse. [Marc-Grégor Campredon]

Seth: If I'm giving them credit for saying "postponing" instead of "canceling" and for going ahead now because they were waiting for rapid testing all along, it's a 9 with the only point missing being some epic communication issues. You can't do anything about the people who come up with conspiracies but there's a level of forthrightness that doesn't get Chris Hutchinson on your back.

Ace: I guess it’s a giant copout to say “TBD until we see how it goes” so I’ll go with a 6. Given what we’ve seen happen in other conferences that went forward (mostly) on schedule with large swaths of players testing positive and sitting out games, it was the responsible choice to wait to start the season. Rapid testing is a big step and if players are going to be on campus anyway this doesn’t feel like a major risk on top of that, particularly since they’re getting much better protection than other students. (I don’t think students should be on campus but we’re past that point, evidently.) The communication was awful and the league is going to BS about this being entirely about testing when it’s about a large number of things, including money and PR, so I can’t hand out anything higher than that.

Other conferences that went forward get, like, a 1, so hooray for relativism.

BiSB: Agreed that it's all relative. The funny thing is that the Big Ten is making all of the headlines because of the supposed drama, while Texas Tech and LSU are like "welp, everybody caught the COVID, sorry bout that" and no one seems terribly concerned about how those conferences are handling things.

Brian: I'm usually the "people are just in charge of things" guy but here this looks fine to me. I don't give a crap about the supposed bad communication when it was obvious why the season was postponed and obvious what would get it back:

If you want to do something useful in the hopes of a spring season, advocate for the development of a protocol that uses the recently approved point-of-contact saliva test as a way to have safe football—for everyone, not just athletes—in the spring. Advocate for a nationwide testing system that will get the virus under control.

So you've got a reasonable plan to get a season in that seems appropriately cautious and is more likely to result in a non-farcical level of competition. In the circumstances I think this is about the best you can do.

BiSB: The hyperbole on both sides of this will be visible from Andromeda.

Note the date: 9/16/20, the day the vaunted Big Ten became the SEC. It choked. It got scared. It sold its soul for football. My @usatodaysports column on the darkest day in Big Ten history: https://t.co/uaWfgpgSqO

— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 16, 2020

Ace: I’ve been accused of virtue signaling once or twice before but… man, that is spicy.

BiSB: Yep. Nothing questionable before now.

Seth: I feel like the only person standing on The Players Deserved More Transparency Hill holding a Don't Play Until It's Safe sign but I'm also dying on it. You need the football players on your side. Pissing them off was a huge failure.

Ace: This is why I believe the messaging was a huge problem.

Brian: We only hear from the ones who are mad.

Ace: Of course! But they made a lot of people mad.

BiSB: And their lawyers. And anyone in the state of Nebraska.

Ace: They may have been mad anyway but they gave them good reason to be mad. And then a loose Clay Travis got in the building.

Seth: I don't care about them. Jim Harbaugh was mad.You know how to get Jim Harbaugh on board with a plan that makes sense? Pick. Up. The. Phone.

Ace: That’s how you get loose Clay Travises.

BiSB: And now they get to celebrate like my 9-month-old when "he" makes a shot in our driveway.

Ace: People are thanking the president.

BiSB: Like, good job, buddy. You totally did that.

Ace: I’M STOPPING THERE DON’T WORRY.

Brian: There was no way to prevent any of that. Look at the general state of the country. There is no possible way to convince a large swath of the population of anything. Clay Travis is a constitutionally dishonest asshole who would have slammed the Big Ten no matter what. It's a Dunning-Krueger world.

BiSB: SMASH CUT TO:

FOOTBALL BACK. STATE GON' SUCK. Thoughts?

Ace: I’m definitely in support of that second part.

Seth: Do they still have Tre Person? Can someone let Nico Collins know that so he doesn't realize he doesn't have to do this season?

Ace:

Wyatt Davis, Ohio State offensive lineman who opted out recently, just called AD Gene Smith in the middle of the zoom call.

— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) September 16, 2020

BiSB: So, when last we left the Big Ten, the best receivers in the conference were probably going to be Nico Collins and Rondale Moore. So the question has to be: how many people are un-opting out?

Ace: Early returns suggest there’ll be a decent number, though Ohio State having everything go their way maybe shouldn’t count when trying to figure these things out. Some players may not have schooled enough to be eligible now. Though it’s probably early enough to, uh, fix that.

Seth: Ohio State having everything is like bad faith people bad faithing; inexorable and inevitable. Also if universities haven't figured out how to eligible up some football players in all kinds of circumstances by now they're never getting out of the 1950s.

BiSB: A worthwhile note on players opting back in:

Something to keep in mind re: B1G or P12 players who’ve opted out and declared: they’ve likely signed with an agent and possibly taken a cash advance on their earnings.

Guys opting back in *seems* unlikely.

— The Solid Verbal (@SolidVerbal) September 16, 2020

Seth: Ah, yes, another "problem" that members of the NCAA have never found a way around.

BiSB: From a football standpoint, I'm not sure if I have a sense of who took the worst beatings from NFL declarations, but it feels like Michigan has to be high on that list. Penn State losing Micah Parsons might be the most painful single opt-out, though.

Seth: Rondale Moore.

Brian: Purdue is #1 because they don't get to see the crowning season for their most exciting player since Drew Brees. Moore is the kind of player where I was devastated he was opting out despite caring for Purdue in no way at all.

BiSB: Purdue still has David Bell, who is still fun. Not Rondale fun, but fun. Penn State was literally building positions for Parsons.

The one that got away [Purdue Athletics]

Seth: Don't forget Michigan State, which lost its avatar in Jacub Panasiuk. I actually don't think the declarations are over. When the Big Ten was canceled anyone with nothing to gain from playing in a pandemic under any circumstances could quietly go about their training. Now some decisions are going to have to be announced.

BiSB: It'll go both ways; some guys will opt back in, some secret opt-outs will be announced. This is your weekly reminder that MSU was already losing 263 career defensive starts before Panasiuk opted out.

Brian: …and completely airballed on transfer QBs.

Ace:

Seth: Come to beautiful East Lansing, where the beautiful green vistas (and all things) are never blocked by offensive linemen.

BiSB: At least they still have Jordan Reid...

/checks opt-out list

...oh.

Ace: Even with the month-plus to prepare, I’m expecting a chaotic start to the season as teams figure all this out while, in several cases, attempting to get back to a normal practice schedule for the first time in a while. Can we petition to make The Game a week one matchup?

BiSB: The mandatory 21 day exclusion for players who test positive is gonna have some WILD effects.

Seth: Transitioning from a month of "optional" no-padded practice to a month of fall camp might be the most normal thing about this season.

Ace: Some of these teams are transitioning from quarantine.

BiSB: Maryland is going to have a socially distanced Praetorian Guard around Taulia Tagovailoa at all times.

Seth: /Praetorian Guard assassinates Tagovailoa, auctions starting Maryland QB job to booster.

Ace: But yes, the 21-day rule paired with the 5% covid-positive rule and the lack of bye weeks… this is gonna take something.

Seth: One worry I have about the 21-day rule is it's so extreme there's a major incentive for a program with a sketchy record of credibility when it comes to safety versus football concerns to lie.

BiSB: That's why they have the "you have to have documented test results for everyone" rule.

Brian: I think that's pretty hard to do when you're testing everyone and documenting it and holding people out of practice for the safety of players and coaches.

Ace: That’s also how you destroy your program’s reputation forever. I don’t think any coaches are that stupid. Probably.

Seth: Just put someone who doesn't care about football in charge of that and I'm okay with it. No, I do not entirely trust a school that was clamoring to go the SEC/ACC/BigXII route to test, document, and hold people out of practice. I was just doing a bunch of eighties stuff so I got a refresher on how the steroid epidemic went down. I know juice isn't contagious but I also know that not testing certain players you can't afford to lose has been done.

Ace: I highly doubt the coaches are in charge of the testing.

BiSB:

From the people who brought us "you may have rhabdo" == "YOU ARE A BAD GUY!!!"

Who wants to talk about Joe Milton?

Prepare for a different set of photos we're going to cycle through quickly. [Patrick Barron]

Ace: Can throw the ball over them there mountains.

BiSB: JUST THROW IT UP TO NI... dammit.

Brian: Nico is apparently opting out and Webb has "three program sources" indicating that Dylan McCaffrey is going to opt out as well.

Ace: JOE MILTON CAN THROW THE BALL ACCURATELY OVER THEM THERE MOUNTAINS

Brian: uh

Ace: Let us have this.

BiSB: Can Milton throw a football so far that Xavier Worthy can't get there?

Brian: Looking forward to hockey.

Ace:

Look, I’m ready for Big Ten ChaosYear, maybe this is the breakthrough. Hockey will be very good and also on BTN+.

Brian: Zero returning OL and presumed starting QB has opted out, best WR has opted out, OSU will get all their players back and have relentless COVID discipline. Lookin' forward to some hockey though.

Ace: When were we ever right about the starting QB?  It was Milton as soon as McCaffrey went first in HTTV.

Seth: Projected 2017 starter John O'Korn did start the meat of 2017.

BiSB: The last genuine surprise was, what, Denard in 2010?

Brian: McCaffrey went first because about a quarter of Milton's throws on tape went directly to the chest of a defender.

BiSB: But with zip.

Ace: So much zip! Joe Burrow was a 50% passer and then he was a throw-god, wild stuff happens.

Seth: Not gonna lie, taking Nico, Mayfield, and Ambry out of this season removes a huge chunk of my optimism. I wasn't really expecting better than treading water at quarterback.

Ace: I’m excited to cover a game that didn’t already happen. Still from the couch, though.

Seth: This is true. Between the pain of a 2017 and (no offense) rehashing old games on twitch while the official Texas account weaponizes Tarik Black stats, give me life.

BiSB: Yes, that is a good point, and one worth emphasizing... FOOTBAW.

Ace: Just muted my college group text, it’s really back.

Seth: Penn State is on our level and taking similar hits. We get to thrash MSU in Ann Arbor a second year in a row, survive an Indiana scare, nearly fall for a lot of Maryland hype, and get a conference win for pummeling an Ivy League reject. At one point there will be extremely unwarranted optimism that results in a t-shirt I am embarrassed to wear.

Ace: That sounds like the most normal season we can have given the circumstances.

Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez on #B1G Zoom presser said schedule is eight games PLUS one. Teams from East and West will matchup (2 seed vs 2, etc) and play on B1G Championship weekend. Schedule to come later this week.

— Inside NU (@insidenu) September 16, 2020

I know I have a sickness because I’m legitimately excited for the 7 vs 7 game.

…which I hope beyond hope is MSU/Nebraska.

Seth: This is how I know they've been reading my schedule proposal. I've been advocating replacing the conference championship with a showcase of the best games not played for years.

Ace: Rutgers/Northwestern on championship Saturday!

BiSB: We’re this close to a plan that involves relegation and promotion.

Seth: The drama of Week 6 that pulls out a 3% chance Indiana-Purdue game.

Ace: Remind me to write a post comparing each year’s MAC champion to Rutgers.

Seth: Next offseason, Ace. This one is OVAH!