The Terminator Chronicles: Big Ten/Pac-12 edition

August 11, 2020, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 fired the first missiles.

After arguing as to whether the fall college football season should be delayed or not, the conference decided that that was it: They were cancelling fall football.

There were words of players practicing at Nebraska and Iowa. There was a sense of hope that everything could get sorted with a player-pushed protest. News of all but Iowa and Nebraska deciding to resist came through yesterday, but they had said there wasn’t a vote.

There was. And the red button was pushed.

But now, there will be no Game. There will be no bitter battles for weird jugs, trophies and helmets. We won’t be able to jump around, white out, wave at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, a Rose Bowl, make fun of Rutgers or any of the other things that we love about Big Ten Football.

Out west there won’t be the smiles from second hand smoke from a Buffalos hangout, a Civil War, Song Girls, evil looks up and down the State of Arizona and the Almighty Duck.

And now, the cities are gone. It’s gone the way of the MAC, the Moutain-West, and other schools and conferences out there. Nuked. All that is left is hope, tears, and what will become dust on gym doors.

We can only wonder if the players’ resistance on Twitter helped with the plutonium in the missile. After all, schools don’t want to ‘bubble’ football players. It would be admitting to themselves – and the outside world – that football players were in fact professional athletes. They didn’t want to accept liability if all hell broke loose, and they couldn’t stop hundreds of 18-22 year-olds behaving like college students. Schools also would pull out evidence from Major League Baseball, when two St Louis Cardinals players opted to go out into a casino and have shut down the operation for the last two weeks, and the Marlins who did it to themselves by not taking it seriously. I mean, if you can’t rely on people who get paid proper money to not take a measures seriously, then how you can rely on 18-22 year-olds, a lot of them who won’t even see NFL riches and go unthanked in practice game in, game out?

Over with our friends Tobacco Land, there is talk of a resistance. Doctor Advocates in General Swofford’s War Room have said that the league should go ‘full steam ahead’ because deaths from the plague might hit anyone, anywhere and football won’t be different.

We know about the stronghold of the SEC. General Sankey is starting the season late to buy himself time from pressing the button. He wants to go. We all want to go.

in the ACC and the SEC are still looking strong, and the Big-12 is wavering. General Sankey’s decision to delay the SEC until the end of September looks a strong one.

And how about General Bowlsby in Big 12 Country? Despite being laughed at by many over the conference’s incompetence at Play-Off level, his decision not to release schedules and the suchlike and keeping his head below the parapet now seems genius. He is on the fence. He has pressures from some of the biggest districts in his City to play, but he’s waiting, watching.

We have to be watchful, wait, wear masks, and be intelligent in our fight.

We might give up the battle until the Spring. Some of our soldiers might retire from the fight. Some might stay.

But we all need to be united. Stay safe.

And wear a mask as a sign of resistance.