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Last week, we were all getting excited about the possibility of seeing some Husker football this season. Then the rug got pulled out from under us. Now the Big Ten front office is dangling another treat in the air for the football coaches, players and fans. Except this time it’s the promise of spring football instead of a fall football schedule. But let’s be honest...there is no way that’s happening either. Whether it’s two games, six games or ten games, I think almost every football player would rather play in fall 2020 instead of spring 2021.
Over the last month, I slowly came to accept the reality that a college football season wasn’t happening this year. Even when the Big Ten conference announced an updated schedule, I knew there was a good chance that a full schedule might not have happened. Despite all of this, it’s hard to deny that Kevin Warren and the Big Ten front office have done a terrible job of handling this situation. Despite football teams bending over backwards to implement rules and regulations, it seems like the conference was resigned to cancelling the season no matter what was done. The conference never gave us a fighting chance by postponing the season. Nobody has any idea what they are basing their decisions on because we still haven’t been told anything. I think the lack of transparency, communication and preparation by the Big Ten conference is why a lot of people like me are annoyed and upset.
At the same time, the Nebraska front office has been pretty quiet for the last 48 hours. No statements from Moos or Frost...yet. Do they have something up their sleeve? Is Nebraska going to start practicing in pads? Will a bombshell statement be released today or tomorrow? These next few days will be very telling.
Anyways...onto Flakes.
Frosted Flakes
Nebraska Football: A Rogue One Reaction Roundtable | Football | Corn Nation
The Corn Nation staff shares their thoughts on Tuesday’s big news.
Mailbag: Nebraska Next Steps Amid a Football-Less Fall | Sports | Hail Varsity
Hail Varsity staff members Mike Babcock, Jacob Padilla, Greg Smith, Erin Sorensen and Brandon Vogel tackle your questions about the latest news in Husker Nation.
Padding the Stats: No Fall Sports Presents Unique Situation for Huskers | Volleyball | Corn Nation
Arguably the two best volleyball conferences in the NCAA bowed out of the fall season on Tuesday, which casts doubt on the sport as a whole. The Division I Board of Directors gave the Division I Council until Aug. 21 to come up with a recommendation for the fall sport championships. Can volleyball move forward as scheduled with the Big Ten and Pac-12 sitting out? Will the NCAA Volleyball Championship still be coming to Omaha Dec. 17-19?
Without Football, Apparently the Ideals the Sport Holds Dear Are Null | Football | Hail Varsity
Nebraska football is as old as the Sherman Act, a coincidence that at least prompted a smile from me during a sad time. If you need a refresher, that’s the antitrust law that should make capping student-athlete compensation at cost of attendance illegal. But the NCAA has fought hard to maintain that it is exempt from the Sherman Act, and new legal opinions chip away at that bit by bit.
Maybe losing football doesn’t qualify as a crisis in Piscataway or College Park or Bloomington. But it’s DEFCON 1 in Lincoln, Ann Arbor and Columbus. No wonder Scott Frost and Ryan Day aren’t going down without a fight. Had the Big Ten really valued its members this week, commissioner Warren would’ve resisted the urge for uniformity and enabled schools freedom this fall. Freedom to compete — or not.
Roughly 12 hours after Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren suggested, in a Yahoo! Sports story, that Nebraska couldn’t be a member of the Big Ten and still play football in the fall, Ohio State coach Ryan Day said his program — the Big Ten’s best by some margin — is also exploring the potential of playing football in the fall.
The Big 12 released its reconfigured schedule. The NCAA extended the recruiting dead period through September. College Football Playoff executives awaited further guidance amid a shrunken pool of FBS teams. Conference-USA officials met and decided not to scrap fall football for the time being. Nebraska, meanwhile, was outwardly silent. No new statements. All interviews declined.
A Big Ten football schedule was released August 5th. Six days later, the season was canceled. What happened during those six days? Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren wouldn’t answer that question Tuesday. We do know this: Warren’s incredibly adept at not answering direct questions. His strategy is seemingly to talk and talk and talk until you’ve forgotten the question.
An NDSU spokesperson confirmed to the Journal Star on Wednesday afternoon that the school has reached out to Nebraska about playing. He said NDSU wants to play up to three games this fall, including perhaps one FBS opponent.
College Football’s Schism Moves Up Further Apart Than We Already Are | Football | The Ringer
The sport is at its best—and, oftentimes, its worst—when it connects disparate places and people together. It’s unruly and chaotic, much like the debate over whether it’s safe to play this fall.
Even If Nebraska Doesn’t Play a Game This Fall, It Has Already Won | Football | Saturday Tradition
What happened in the B1G is indeed unprecedented on a variety of levels. A 14-team conference canceled its fall football season without the rest of the Power 5 conferences in agreement. That alone is going to be talked about for decades. The response to that was plenty significant in itself. I’ve never seen anything like what Nebraska did. Neither have you.
Cancelling the College Football Season Is About Union Busting, Not Health | Football | The Guardian
Despite numerous outbreaks of Covid-19 in football programs across the US, by early August, much of the Power Five remained committed to preserving the season. Until, this week, when suddenly they didn’t. While our understanding of the virus has not changed significantly over the past few weeks, one important variable has: football players across the nation have boldly mobilized for increased control over their working conditions.
“We were preparing to walk across the track and get on the victory stand and receive the award. John Carlos and I had talked and we knew we were going to do something,” says Smith, now 76. “But nobody knew exactly what Tommie Smith and John Carlos were going to do, including Tommie Smith and John Carlos.”
Travel and Entertainment
Singapore Is Using Drones to Enforce Social Distancing | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler
Police in Singapore have been testing two pilotless drones in their efforts to enforce social distancing and curb the spread of COVID-19, Reuters reported. The 22-pound drones from the Israeli company Airobotics are programmed to track gatherings and send footage to police. They’re able to zoom into areas that may not otherwise be visible to authorities on foot or in official vehicles.
How Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Became the Busiest in the World | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler
For three months in a row the Texas hub has had the most takeoffs and landings around the globe. Starting in May, the airport climbed to the top ranking, with 22,831 airline takeoffs and landings, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration.
What I’m Teaching My Black Son Through Our Family Trips | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler
I teach him through travel that being proud of one’s heritage shouldn’t come at the expense of dismissing other cultures; Cartagena was a reminder of that lesson. Yes, the history of colorism between Colombians with white skin and those with dark skin is eerily similar to the cruel racist history of the United States.
Feria de las Flores: Inside Medellin’s Stunning Flower Festival | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler
The export of flowers and unique orchids remain a vital component of Colombia’s economy, with nearly 75 percent of flowers sold in the U.S. coming from the South American country, according to Colombia’s trade and tourism agency. And each year, Colombia dedicates an entire week to these bright delights on its home turf, with flowers on full display throughout the Antioquian capital of Medellín.
A Tiny ‘Nation’ in the Australian Outback | Travel | BBC
This gateway is all that separates Australia from the self-declared Principality of Hutt River, a hereditary monarchy and micronation founded on April 21, 1970 by the late Leonard Casley, a wheat farmer turned outback ruler.
Ways Plane Design Might Look Different in the Future | Travel | Insider
Designer Jeffrey O’Neill created the Zephyr Seat, a double-decker-like design that would allow passengers in economy class to lie flat, while also maintaining social distancing. Kind of like a bunk bed, two people would share a row, but one on top of the other, meaning more privacy and space without airlines having to compromise on passenger numbers.
Where Do Astronauts Go On Vacation? | Travel | National Geographic
Astronauts are tourists too, turns out, and they like sightseeing just as much as anyone else. So where does an astronaut vacation when they return Earth-side?
These People of Color Transformed U.S. National Parks | Travel | National Geographic
When I began exploring the outdoors, I had no idea that Black people had played a vital role in the creation of Yosemite, one of my favorite national parks. I had never heard the story of the park’s connection with Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers, and when I finally did, at age 42, it came to me as a complete surprise.
This Airline Will Take You On a Flight Over Antarctica | Travel | Lonely Planet
Australia’s Qantas and Antarctica Flights are bringing back their sightseeing trips over Antarctica, which take an average of 12.5 hours and arrive back where they started. They will take place on Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes and are only open to passengers from Australia, where they are considered to be domestic flights.
The World’s Last Blockbuster is Available to Rent on Airbnb | Entertainment | Lonely Planet
The stay will give guests the opportunity to experience a 90s-themed sleepover and relive the bygone Friday night tradition of movie night. The experience can be booked for $4 (€3.39) plus taxes and fees, which is great value when you consider that movie rentals cost $3.99 (€3.38).
As it is currently conceived, it will position artists against other states’ representatives in a series of televised qualifier competitions, leading to semi-finals and the ultimate prime-time grand final. It is open to all singers with a song, whether they are amateur artists or already signed to a major record label.
The Rest
We Now Know Where Almost All of Stonehenge’s Stones Came From | History | Atlas Obscura
Now, a paper published in the open-access journal Science Advances proposes that all but two of the 52 sarsen megaliths were local stones hailing from Stonehenge’s own Wiltshire county, about 15 miles north of the ancient site. They isolated the location by testing a stone core that was extracted in 1958 for restoration, and then lost for six decades.
The Story Behind the Eiffel Tower’s Forgotten Competitors | History | Ozy
Gustave Eiffel’s Tower was just one of 300 to 700 submitted pitches (estimates vary) vying to be Paris’ world’s fair centerpiece. Even after it was finished, the Eiffel Tower’s life-span was originally set at 20 years. Scheduled to be demolished in 1909, the spire was saved by its utility as a radiotelegraph post as much as its popular acceptance. Nonetheless, it attracted the attention of those who would improve it.
How the Pandemic Made the Opioid Crisis Worse | Health | Newsweek
The need for such an intervention is more urgent than ever. Addiction has claimed 750,000 lives since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This year, COVID-19-related developments are adding to the downward spiral. Over the last three to four months overdose deaths have increased nationwide by close to 15 percent.
The Impact of Color On Our Well-Being | Psychology | Shondaland
Color plays a tremendous role in how we react and respond to things around us. It can affect the way we feel, how we think, how we interact with one another, and whether or not we buy a specific item. Color is a subtle yet powerful communication tool, and it informs the way we see and how we feel about the world.
The Fragile State of Contact Languages | Culture | Knowable
When groups of people who speak different languages come together, they sometimes inadvertently create a new one, combining bits of each into something everyone can use to communicate easily. Linguists call such impromptu tongues “contact languages” — and they can extend well beyond the pidgin and creole that many of us have heard of.
The Unusual State New Species of Stingrays Found In a Jar | Animals | BBC
Unknown to science, it sat in a museum for more than a century, and as biologist Alec Moore discovered, this new species also comes with an intriguing backstory of house arrest and war.
Popsicles and Belly Rubs: The Joys of Watching a Panda Grow Up | Animals | National Geographic
Almost everybody loves pandas. After a year documenting a newborn cub, a photographer remembers when she did too.
While most of the early research focused on the larger plastics found on beaches and floating on the surface, less visible and more pervasive plastic bits have spread into virtually every crevice on Earth, from the deepest sea trenches to the highest alpine mountains. Some microplastics are so tiny they are part of the dust that blows around the planet, high in the atmosphere.
Despite the seemingly positive intentions of many cancellations — to “demand greater accountability from public figures,” as Merriam-Webster’s evaluation of the phrase notes — people tend to call out cancel culture itself as a negative movement, suggesting that the consequences of cancellation are too harsh in minor instances or represent rushed judgment in complicated situations. Others have criticized that criticism, saying cancel culture doesn’t exist.
One Last Thing
A customer has just bought a 2021 calendar.
— Waterstones Piccadilly (@WaterstonesPicc) August 12, 2020
Sir, we admire your optimism.