Big Ten Can’t Hide Their Vote Forever

As Joe detailed on Thursday, eight Nebraska football players are suing the Big Ten, stating that the cancellation of football season this Fall should be “overturned because it didn’t follow established procedures in the decision-making process and was ‘unjustified’ based on flawed and misapplied medical information.”

The Big Ten’s response is kind of funny:

Big Ten attorney Andrew Luger argues the "harm would be incredible" if board of directors documents were made available to the public just because eight student-athletes disagree with the decision. He said the court is asking for something with "no precedent."

— Sean Callahan (@Sean_Callahan) August 27, 2020

Yes, the harm would be “incredible” if we learned how Big Ten universities and chancellors, who are paid high six to low seven figures in taxpayer money totaling over $13 million annually in the conference, voted on behalf of their public universities. Imagine the horror at the transparency.

Here is another of the Big Ten’s arguments, followed by a response from the players’ attorney:

Attorney Andrew Luger, representing the Big Ten, argues the dangerous precedent set that "if you disagree with the decision by the Big Ten, by the 14 schools, any student anywhere (who) disagrees with one of the decisions, you have the right to go rummaging through the files."

— Brian Christopherson (@Husker247BC) August 27, 2020

Husker representation: "What we're saying is the Big Ten didn't follow their own procedure in having given us the documents we're entitled to.. Big Ten's own tender requires our clients to follow (B1G) bylaws & regulations. That's required. And if they don't, they're sanctioned."

— Brian Christopherson (@Husker247BC) August 27, 2020

The judge in the case has given the Big Ten a deadline of Monday at 5:00 pm to come up with a formal response.

Meanwhile, on a separate front, the attorney Tom Mars, who has worked as an investigator for the NCAA and has been in the news for his work representing Justin Fields and Cade Mays in their transfer cases, is FOIA’ing the 13 Big Ten schools to figure out how they voted:

Lawyer Tom Mars @tallanmars working with many Big10 parents who want specifics regarding the league’s decision to postpone the football season, has floated the idea of creating a website where all info from his 13 FOIA requests can be downloaded & made available to the public 👀 pic.twitter.com/4rbVJZB5As

— angelique (@chengelis) August 24, 2020

Maybe the Big Ten can filibuster the release of this information for a little while through the courts, but they’re not going to be able to hide forever. There’s clearly a reason why they don’t want this information out there — maybe, despite commissioner Kevin Warren’s repeated claims, there never actually was a formal vote. Or, maybe the presidents and chancellors who did vote for cancellation don’t want their names on it because it’s unpopular in regions where they are purported public servants. Whatever the case may be, there’ll be a day where the chickens have to come home to roost.