Blue White Illustrated

And in response to mounting criticism, parent-organized protests at the Big Ten's headquarters in suburban Chicago, and even a lawsuit filed by eight football players at Nebraska, Warren's open let- ter was defiantly tone-deaf, proclaiming that the conference's leaders "thor- oughly understand and deeply value what sports mean to our student-ath- letes, their families, our coaches, and our fans. The vote by the Big Ten Coun- cil of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) was overwhelmingly in support of postponing fall sports and will not be revisited. The decision was thorough and deliberative, and based on sound feedback, guidance, and advice from medical experts." Unacknowledged, of course, was a simple truth that things change. And, of course, in the span of a few weeks, much of the sound feedback, guidance, and advice from medical experts had shifted to reflect a series of new realities. The first came when the NCAA's Divi- sion I Council recommended on Aug. 19 that fall championships be moved to the spring, creating an opportunity for Big Ten athletic departments to singularly focus their attention on football. The second came in the form of testing advancements that would allow for point-of-care administering and rapid, reliable results. As explained by Ohio State's Dr. James Borchers, co-chair of the Big Ten Return to Play Task Force along with Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour, those testing advancements helped create an environment in which a multitude of challenges suddenly had solutions. "Our ability to test consistently and uniformly amongst the conference – that was really important," Borchers said. "As we looked at the various test- ing options, we became more and more convinced that there was a path for- ward. I think that there were some issues around contact tracing that the testing helps us to solve inside our athletic en- vironment. "In medicine, very often when things are unclear, we pause, we become colle- gial, we discuss. We are driven to a path forward. We are driven to look at the ev- idence. I think all of us have done that, and we've ended up in a place where we feel comfortable that we have a path for- ward that's going to emphasize health and safety." Had the Big Ten taken that position the first time around, announcing a pause instead of an indefinite postponement with no plan for moving forward, the tu- mult of August and early September might have been largely avoided. And despite its missteps along the way, the robust protocols enacted by the confer- ence are likely to help it avoid the kind of cancellations that marred the first few weeks of the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference seasons. For the sake of the conference's pri- mary stakeholders, it's a position worthy of confidence despite the messy path it took to get there. ■ From a pure matchup point of view, PSU has a sizable advantage [over Indi- ana] and should be favored by more than a TD. However, traditionally PSU just does not always play to its potential when on the road at sleepy venues such as Indiana and Rutgers. That combination of "meh" crowds and the home team wearing red seems to equal a couple of Penn State TDs taken off the board right from the start. In that regard, as much as anything to do with personnel, I'm not taking it for granted. That said, I cannot imagine PSU being anything less than 100 percent ready to get the season underway and show the nation that they are a force to be reckoned with. They know Indiana is a quality opponent, as they have played us tough regularly, including last season at PSU! They'll take on the challenge like a championship team should. PSU will have to not look ahead to Ohio State the following week, but I trust the coaches and cap- tains will make sure that is not a factor. Bob78 Nothing wrong with worrying about IU. It's the opening game, on the road, against an ever-improving conference opponent that badly wants to beat us on their home turf more than anything. In this case, the "worrying" is a healthy respect for the unknown. Do we win? I fully expect and anticipate a victory. Will it be easy? Hell no – but I'll be delighted to be wrong on this, trust me! Worrying about this is just another angle of going 1-0 each week. Plan accord- ingly, set your game plan, respect your opponent, expect the unexpected, exe- cute your game plan and be ready to overcome whatever stumbles you make, for it's bound to happen. henrymale We are way better than the Hoosiers, and the team will be anxious to show it. This will be a blowout, and then we will get ready for a tight game that could go either way. Talent wins out. ryanowen7 We don't know how good anyone is going to be this year, especially out of the gate. No one is in top shape. Everyone will be out of sync. No one has done any live tackling for months. I think you had better be prepared to see some pretty crappy football the first couple of weeks. ... Everything will be week-to-week this year. The only positive is that we don't have to play in Giants Stadium this year, so we just saved at least six ACL tears! KidTwist S I T E L I N E S B W I . R I V A L S . C O M R E A D E R S W E I G H I N

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