There’s still a chance for the B1G to do the right thing and scrap title-game requirement

The Big Ten offices in Chicago have been eerily — but not unexpectedly — quiet lately.

Semesters are wrapping up around this embattled conference’s footprint. Basketball and hockey have eked their way out the door. Commissioner Kevin Warren is a footnote in his own latest headlines, the ones about his son entering the transfer portal.

Football remains a mess. And while the league has a lot of work to do in removing the stains, it could at least stand to start organizing the its kids have thrown all over the room.

Remember back in August, when the B1G first announced its revamped, COVID-19-influenced schedule? Remember Jenga 41? The one-word mission statement behind its creation was “flexibility.”

The league Warren obviously wanted to get out in front of this. They wanted to look strong.

Then they caved. Season canceled. Then pressure came from their key constituents. So they caved again. Season saved.

Or was it?

As the calendar turns to December, we’re reminded why nimbleness was always the key to successfully pulling this off. One need only look at the SEC and its ability to conduct a meaningful season amid a pandemic for evidence.

But there’s even more right in the B1G’s backyard. And it isn’t pretty.

The conference’s best team is one more cancellation away from being ineligible for the B1G Championship Game. Thanks to a COVID outbreak among its ranks, No. 3 Ohio State had to cancel Saturday’s game against Illinois.

Current conference stipulations state teams must play at least 6 of their 8 scheduled games to be eligible for the league title contest. The Buckeyes already had their game against Maryland scrapped because of positive tests by the Terrapins, so 4-0 Ohio State is on dangerously thin ice. Wisconsin already has missed 3 games.

We’re learning it takes teams at least 2 weeks to control outbreaks — see Wisconsin and likely Minnesota as examples. If the Buckeyes aren’t able to play Michigan State and Michigan over the next two weeks, they’ll likely finish 5-0 or 6-0 while Northwestern and Indiana play for a conference championship.

Indiana, a team Ohio State beat on the field. And Northwestern, which just lost to unranked, 2-3 Michigan State.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, has played just 3 games this season. Over the course of an 8-game schedule, it may have proved its loss to Northwestern was just a blip and it deserved conference championship game consideration.

The Badgers certainly looked the part in wins against Illinois and Michigan. How good are they? We’ll never really get to find out.

Those are just two scenarios, but you can see the conundrum.

The best way out? Creativity and flexibility.

College football analyst Joel Klatt has clamored for the league to reconsider its minimum-game threshold.

He’s right.

Why do conferences exist in the first place? For the mutual competitive and economic benefit of their members. They hold title games in order to determine, on the field of play, which team is the best and — in the case of the B1G — undoubtedly worthy of national championship consideration.

Are Indiana and Northwestern the 2 best teams in this conference right now?

The College Football Playoff selection committee doesn’t think so. More on that in a minute.

By delaying the start of the season while it waffled between playing and punting to the spring, the conference’s decision-makers — namely, Warren and the schools’ presidents and chancellors — created an environment where teams are now being punished for being infected or being scheduled to play opponents with too many positive tests.

We knew this was going to be a problem as soon as the conference announced its return-t0-play plans included 8 games in 8 weeks. The league went from realizing cases were highly likely and planning accordingly to sticking its head between its legs to sheepishly admitting its error and trying to cobble something together when it was almost too late.

And now conference brass sit stubbornly silent. The virus is rising around America in the meantime.

Hypothetically, there are a lot of ways to do this. Scrapping the threshold and just going off straight winning percentage would be cleanest.

Any decision will of course have Playoff implications. Thankfully, the committee is made up of human beings — who ranked the Buckeyes No. 4 behind Alabama, Notre Dame and Clemson in their first poll — and doesn’t have a minimum-games requirement. That means Ohio State could still get in without playing for a conference title.

But this isn’t about forcing the Buckeyes into the Playoff, as some conspiracy theorists suggested when the league reinstated the season. It’s about doing the right thing for the B1G’s players, staff, schools and fans who drive the economic engine.

There were always going to be coronavirus outbreaks if college football took place this year. Even when discussing the B1G’s final decision to play, Warren called this a “fluid situation.”

So adapt accordingly. If the conference can flip its decision to not play, it can surely tweak its conference championship game eligibility language.

But wouldn’t that come as a shock if it did? This is the same league that wouldn’t let healthy teams try and fill their schedule when opponents canceled due to COVID and won’t even allow bands or cheerleaders into its 90,000-seat stadiums.

College football in a pandemic requires sensibility and creativity. If the B1G were to finally display either, it’d be a surprise.

Phil Ervin

Veteran sports writer Phil Ervin brings his expertise on Minnesota and B1G football to Saturday Tradition. Follow him on Twitter @PhilErvin.