*This article was written on Sep. 16th, 2020*
If you want to get something changed, sometimes you have to push the envelope. Sometimes you have to be the only one that believes in the cause. And when the Big Ten cancelled the football season on August 11th, it seemed as though the Huskers were the only team that believed that a season could happen in the fall. In fact, Desmond Howard wanted the Huskers to apologize for threatening to leave the Big Ten for the season. But instead of forcing a divorce, the Huskers did the best thing they could; they pushed the envelope, kept the Big Ten intact, and may very well have gotten all Power 5 conferences back to playing football. (The PAC-12 now has a movement going to return to play.)
The Cornhuskers fought tooth and nail to make this season happen, and when we look back at the crazy sports season that is 2020, it will be the Huskers who get remembered as the team who pushed Kevin Warren and the Big Ten to a season. The Huskers have one of the most passionate and determined fan bases in the country, even if most of them are trying to relive in the 1990s glory years. And that determination is what saved this season.
Now, the Huskers aren’t the only folks that can take credit for making this season happen. I truly believe that if the Big 12, ACC, or SEC had jumped ship with the PAC-12 and the Big Ten, this fall we would have seen no football. But with three other conferences doing everything they could to make a season happen, it gave Nebraska the opening it needed to push the Big Ten for a season. Also, without the elite football that Ohio State has brought over the past five years to national level, the Big Ten might have not returned. After all, what is the point of trying to compete nationally if you can’t compete nationally? With a team like Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten, conference officials knew that leaving them out of the national spotlight could seriously hurt the conference.
Overall, Nebraska attacked this problem just like they USE to play football: gritty and hard-nosed. Did the Huskers play their battle to return this season clean? No. In fact, the Huskers put in place not one, but TWO lawsuits against the Big Ten to get the season back on track. And without these lawsuits, Warren is not in a rush to get back to the season that he so boldly helped cancelled. Heck, maybe the Huskers did learn a thing or two from Bo Pelini about arguing with officials!
But in all honesty, as much as you hate them, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are the reason that the Big Ten is playing a season this fall. Now, we are able to get adequate testing for the athletes, and bring fans the entertainment that has been ingrained in American culture. So, for most of you this might be hard to say, but it needs to be said:
Thank you Nebraska.
This article was written by TK. To contact TK about this article, email digitalzsports@gmail.com.