The optimism surrounding the B1G’s return to the football field has quickly dissipated.

For now, there is not a growing concern that the conference will not be able to finish the fall schedule. Unfortunately, the thought that the conference may have figured out a better method than the rest of the conferences around the country for dealing with COVID-19 has proven to be a mirage.

Following the first week of action, Wisconsin has suffered an outbreak of the virus within the Badgers’ football program. Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez shared an update to that situation Saturday morning, and he indicated that positives are still growing.

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As most fans will remember, the B1G policy for the virus requires players testing positive to sit out for 21 days. Not only is that a long time period, but it’s also a protocol that simply does not make sense to ESPN’s David Pollack.

During Saturday morning’s edition of ESPN’s College GameDay, he took time to hammer the B1G for trying to set protocols that are even beyond CDC guidelines:

“The B1G has done a really bad job managing this,” said Pollack. “The CDC doesn’t even make you do 21 days. So are you better than the CDC?

“You need to do what everybody else is doing. I think everyone else is doing the right thing, too. Everyone else has the player’s mindset at heart, too. I think they’ve just mismanaged this whole situation.”

At this point, it is hard to disagree with Pollack’s assessment.