Today's episode of As the Big Ten Turns focused on the absence of concrete information emerging from conference leadership and the misinformation that has rushed in to fill that void.
Now we have real information. A little bit of it, at least.
In response to yesterday's episode, the one where state politicians from around Big Ten states demanded answers from the league, the conference released this:
On the surface, this is the same corporate nonsense-speak that the Big Ten has given us for the past month, dating back to commissioner Kevin Warren's interview with BTN that "explained" the league's decision to postpone the football season. The conference has said the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors will "identify opportunities to resume competition as soon as it is safe to do so" more times than any of us care to hear in ten lifetimes.
But in addition to that, we have this. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg tweeted Wednesday afternoon that a late October return to competition "isn't out of the question."
As for some on-the-record proof of progress, Nebraska president Ted Carter said this to KLIN-AM in Lincoln: "There is an awful lot of work still going on on our return to play committee.... They're putting together some plans that our chancellors and presidents will vote on very soon. The fight is still on."
Chicago Tribune writer Teddy Greenstein followed that by saying a vote could be held by Monday.
So, what does that entail? Will Big Ten presidents vote to resume the season in January, at Thanksgiving, or by late October--possibly even in time to shoehorn the league back into the Playoff discussion? It's too soon to say.
But it the idea of a Big Ten football season at some point in 2020 seems more real today than it did on Aug. 11.
In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.