Big Ten ADs Were 'Unanimous' in Favor of Playing Football in the Fall

So we've known for about two weeks now how haphazardly everything happened in the Big Ten with regards to canceling football season in the fall. They canceled the season less than a week after releasing a schedule in which there were touted guardrails to build in delays. Commissioner Kevin Warren, whose own son is playing at Mississippi State in the SEC this fall, can't get on the same page with conference administrators over whether there was actually a formal vote to cancel the season. Big Ten chancellors and presidents combine to make over $13 million in taxpayer money, yet a vast majority of them are too craven to put their names on their decision.

Now, we have a report that all 14 athletic directors in the Big Ten wanted to play in the fall, but were essentially crowded out of the communication by Warren and the presidents and chancellors.

Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos spoke to Omaha.com about the process:

Warren was aware, for example, that every Big Ten athletic director was in favor of playing a fall football season. Moos said he, Ohio State’s, Penn State’s and Michigan’s A.D.s pushed hardest, but there was unanimous agreement, Moos said, in wanting to play.

“He knew where we were coming from, and he was the messenger to the presidents and chancellors ... “I knew where our people stood, but I would have liked to have been in the room when they expressed it to the commissioner and our presidents and chancellors,” Moos said. “The commissioner was operating in silos, and the silos weren’t connected. And, in the end, that created varying degrees of communication not being delivered.”

This is one of those weird things that should be stunning but is wholly unsurprising given everything else we've seen in the last two weeks. There's always been an inherent tension between university leadership and athletic directors and coaches, and this feels like a time where said administrators flexed to show who was really in charge. It would be fascinating to see a parallel universe as to how this would've gone with former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, who if nothing else would've handled the internal and external communication in a far more satisfactory manner.