Rough couple of weeks for Penn State and Big 10 fans.

Conference leaders decided to not play football this fall, which angered players, coaches, and parents. Now President Trump is inserting himself into the issue and the Mississippi Department of Transportation is trolling:

Funny that Mississippi would take a few jabs at the Big 10 since their teams haven’t won anything meaningful in many years and are simply riding the coattails of other powerhouse SEC teams.

I mentioned Trump earlier because he spoke to Big 10 commissioner Kevin Warren on the phone Tuesday, which completes the politicization of this issue (it was already headed in that direction long before he got involved).

From ESPN:

“I think it was very productive about getting [the] Big Ten playing again and immediately,” Trump said. “Let’s see what happens. He’s a great guy. It’s a great conference, tremendous teams. We’re pushing very hard. … I think they want to play, and the fans want to see it, and the players have a lot at stake, including possibly playing in the NFL. You have a lot of great players in that conference.

“We had a very good conversation, very productive, and maybe we’ll be very nicely surprised. They had it closed up, and I think they’d like to see it open, along with a lot of other football that’s being played right now.”

In an earlier Tweet on Tuesday, Trump indicated the Big Ten’s plans to return were at the “one yard line!”

A Big Ten official said there was still a lot of work to do and emphasized that the league’s presidents and chancellors would have to approve any plans.

Sources told ESPN that several plans are being considered by the Big Ten’s Return to Competition Task Force — with the potential earliest start in late November or early January, or later next spring.

We’ll see; again, a lot of the college football decision making has been understandably split on partisan political lines. The Pac-12 and Big 10 are comprised primarily of teams in blue states, while the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 contain majority red state territory, like Texas, Georgia, and Florida.

Thanksgiving was being rumored as a Big 10 start date on Twitter, but then you’re looking at… what? Conference games outdoors in January in Michigan and Wisconsin? It’ll be 10 degrees by that point.

The original Big 10 schedule was to begin September 5th and carry through the first week of December, featuring two bye weeks and an open week before the championship game. That’s 13 weeks total for the 10-game agreed-upon schedule. Not sure Thanksgiving is feasible, is it?