Tell ya what, people are all over the place with this Big 10 stuff today. The takes are SCORCHING HOT.

On the far right, you’ve got people celebrating like we just took down ISIS. On the far left, there is widespread lamentation after the decision to resume the football season in October.

One of those in the latter category is USA Today’s Christine Brennan, who wrote a column in which she announced 9/16/20 as the “darkest day in Big Ten sports history.” Personally, I think the darkest day in conference history was when Penn State and Iowa played a football game that finished 6 to 4, but she obviously disagrees while writing this:

“For decades, the Big Ten has thought of itself as a different kind of sports conference, one that proudly touts the academic achievements and Great Lakes values of its like-minded, highly-regarded, internationally-ranked research institutions. The Big Ten wasn’t the SEC; it wasn’t the Big 12. It was better than that, and it was happy to tell you all about it.

As proof, one only had to look at the conference’s prudent August decision to shut down fall sports in the midst of the global pandemic. It was only natural that the Big Ten would follow the Ivy League, and that the Pac-12 would follow the Big Ten. It was a tough decision, heartbreaking and costly, but it was the right one.

That’s the Big Ten for you, concerned about science, medicine and safety. Let the football factories of the SEC, Big 12 and ACC (Clemson’s playground) continue playing; the Big Ten was doing the right thing looking out for its student-athletes, treating them almost no differently than the student body at large, and that was all that mattered.

Then came Wednesday, the darkest day in Big Ten sports history, the day the vaunted conference caved. It choked. It got scared. It became the SEC.”

She goes on to rip Nebraska, Donald Trump, and the Big 10 presidents for caving, and look – she’s entitled to her opinion, but let’s slow it with the hyperbole. We aren’t going to think any less of your “Great Lakes values” because the conference decided to play football.

Everybody seems to forget that the Big 10 put together an incredibly detailed and comprehensive health and safety plan in accordance with a return to play. They aren’t just rolling out to the gridiron like nothing happened. There are strict rules and regulations. And if the morons (her insinuation) in the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 can execute a reasonable return to play, then surely the high and mighty Big 10 can also fucking figure it out, so that we can once again be graced with a Northwestern vs. Purdue field goal fest at noon on ESPN 2.