By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – College football needs to fix something that has been exposed by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The fact that two of the five Power 5 conferences – the Big Ten and the Pacific-12 – have cancelled fall football, while the other three Power 5 conferences still plan to play this fall points to a major flaw in the system.

Conferences under normal circumstances should act in their best interests, and as separate entities.

But we haven’t seen normal since early March due to the virus, so it’s time to adjust to the strange and surreal circumstances.

It is time for college football to create a position that would act as a governing body, and as a decision maker during unusual times like this, and during all times for that matter.

Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz has supported this idea for years, partly because of how much revenue big-time college football now generates.

“The revenue that has grown in college sports, particularly in college football, it’s kind of like each man for himself and I personally think, and I’ve felt this way for over a decade, we at some point need a commissioner of college football,” Ferentz said last Friday on the HawkFanatic/KCJJ radio show and podcast. “Will still work under the confines of the NCAA, obviously. But we need a commissioner football.

“And the other important ingredient that we need is enforcement of the rules, whatever the rules are that we decide. And that will be a discussion in itself. But at some point, we need to enforce the rules and do it the same way across the board. Right now, that’s not really going on and this is a great illustration of it.”

Of course, Kirk Ferentz has the benefit of hindsight. But he has felt this way for years.

And can we all agree that the current setup isn’t working?

Because why is it safe for the football players in the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12 Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference to play this fall, but not safe for the players in the Big Ten and the Pac-12?

Or, you could pose that question another way:

Why is it considered too dangerous for players in the Big Ten and Pac-12 to play football this fall, but not too dangerous for players in the SEC, the Big 12 and the ACC?

The lack of consistency and transparency is now being met with strong resistance with parents of Big Ten football players speaking out, including more than 60 Iowa parents.

The Iowa parents held a zoom call to air their grievances and then wrote a letter that was delivered to the Big Ten Office in Chicago by the father of Iowa long snapper Austin Spiewak.

The Iowa parents are upset and frustrated about the lack of transparency and about having absolutely no say in a decision that impacts their child in so many ways.

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields also has launched a petition requesting that the Big Ten Conference immediately reinstate the 2020 season.

Fields’ #WeWantToPlay petition has gained more than 218,000 signatures as of Monday morning.

The Big Ten is aware of the petition, but has no comment at this stage.

But with Fields’ petition gaining so much traction, and with so many parents speaking out, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren will have to address it at some point because this movement won’t just go away.

This cause is close to my heart – please sign: https://t.co/yFKlYE7pP0

— Justin Fields (@justnfields) August 16, 2020

You would like to think that the NCAA could be a leader, and a calming force during these unprecedented times, but that, obviously, isn’t the case because look where we are right now.

There is chaos and confusion caused by a lack of true leadership when leadership is what’s needed more than anything else.

The Big Ten had five months to develop a contingency plan for how to deal with the virus, but it seems to have waited until it was almost too late to form a plan.

Now in fairness, dealing with virus is a fluid situation in which circumstances are constantly changing.

But it still seems apparent that the Big Ten’s response to the virus leaves much to be desired from a process standpoint.

Players and their parents feel abandoned by the process due to a lack of transparency and a lack of awareness.

They want answers and explanations for why the Big Ten changed its position so quickly.

In less than a week, the conference went from revising the schedules to cancelling the season, and did so mostly in secrecy.

One source close to the situation said the sudden change was due to a growing concern about the long-term heart effects that are linked to the Coronavirus.

Okay.

If that is the case, then say it. Share the data with the players and with their parents and explain why the Big Ten is acting on the side of caution.

The Big Ten and the Pac-12 might look real smart in a month if the virus continues to spread and makes it impossible to play football this fall.

It’s not the Big Ten’s decision to cancel football that is the real problem. It’s how the decision was reached.

Sure, you feel for the players and you hate to see the game they love taken away at such a key point in their lives.

But maybe if we knew more about why the Big Ten reached this conclusion, there wouldn’t be as much anger, resentment and resistance.

Each of the five Power 5 conferences has its own medical experts giving advice and making suggestions about how to best deal with the virus from a safety and from a treatment standpoint.

But from the outside looking it, there seems to be a difference of opinion from the medical experts because how else do you explain two conferences deciding not to play this fall, while three have decided to play?

It just makes no sense, and when something this important makes no sense, people want answers.

The best way to get answers is to demand more transparency, and that’s what the parents of Big Ten players hope to accomplish with their letter-writing campaign.

They feel that the Big Ten acted too hastily in cancelling the fall season and they want the decision makers to reconsider, and to explain how and why they reached that decision.

It’s now up to the Big Ten to say something because this story isn’t going away anytime soon. To remain silent will only make it worse.