A former Michigan quarterback and current ESPN analyst is critical of the B1G’s decision to postpone the college football season so early.

Griese, who is preparing for a Monday Night Football broadcast on ESPN, spoke on a conference call on Wednesday. He was asked about the conference’s decision to pull the plug on the season, which was announced nearly a month ago.

“I think it’s unfortunate,” Griese said, according to Angelique Chengelis of The Detroit News. “Certainly, the B1G made a decision early on. They made a decision without consultation with other conferences, which I think was a mistake. I know they wanted to be ahead of it, but at the same time, in a rush to be the first and be a leader, I think they made a mistake in not waiting to get more information and more data back.

“The ones that are suffering are the kids.”

Griese was a member of Michigan’s football team from 1993-97 and was selected in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft. The former Wolverine pointed to his own experiences as a reason why the B1G made a decision to hastily.

“I think back to if I didn’t have the chance to play my senior year at Michigan, I never would have gotten drafted,” Griese said. “I never would have come to Denver, I wouldn’t have met my wife, I wouldn’t have my kids, I wouldn’t be on this call today, I wouldn’t be doing Monday Night Football.

“It’s that game of sliding doors that is real for seniors that are playing in college right now that are not potentially going to have an opportunity to fulfill that dream, and that’s what bothers me the most.”

The B1G was the first Power 5 league to back out of the fall football season, making the announcement on Aug. 11. The Pac-12 followed suit on the same day, releasing a statement hours after the B1G.

Currently, six FBS conferences are moving forward with a fall football schedule.