Mind of Mike: Rejoice! The Big Ten is coming back

The Mind of Mike is a scary place. We delve into the thoughts of Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell on the return of Big Ten football in October.

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Finally! There, column done.

Okay, not really but you get the idea. Ever play that game where you count to three with your friends and at the end you’re all supposed to do something at the same time — jump in a lake, yell something, whatever right? Well that was the Big Ten and Kevin Warren in August, but the problem is that only the Pac-12 joined in while the SEC, ACC and Big 12 all pointed and laughed.

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Many weeks later after the ACC and Big 12 have kicked off their seasons and the SEC is on deck, the Big Ten is now suddenly ready to play in October? I won’t get into politics or Covid-19 or any of that and just say it’s my opinion that the Big Ten, in its arrogance, rushed into a decision and found themselves somewhat alone.

Let’s face it, the Pac-12 isn’t the Big Ten when it comes to football fanaticism and the west coast has other issues and policies to deal with. In essence, I’m saying I’m not surprised the Pac-12 shut it down and I know they would have regardless of the Big Ten decision.

Which essentially left the Big Ten on an island when no one else jumped in and a serious case of FOMO — fear of missing out. It was a bit of a bluff and I don’t mean that nonchalantly because the health concerns are serious and player safety is crucial. The bluff was called by the southern conferences and the Big Ten players and coaches were left dangling in the wind. And the communication between the powers in the Big Ten and the coaches has proven to be abysmal and clearly won’t change if a global pandemic doesn’t change it.

I’m just happy for the people who have worked so hard to help overturn this decision and just want the chance to show their skills and all the effort they’ve put into the sport they love. No one will forget the fiasco and the constant back and forth from a conference with a very arrogant reputation before all of this and it could very well hurt their chances of luring big name coaches to the conference in the future, but right now what matters is that we will have Big Ten football in October.

And I couldn’t be happier.