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Thursday, August 13, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

Kevin Warren talks about ‘uncertainties’ that led to Big Ten decision

Big Ten commissioner Kevin 
Warren had a lot to say about the 
postponement of sports in the 
conference this fall — unfortunately a 
lot of it translates to ‘We don’t know.’
“This is a holistic decision,” 
Warren said in an interview with 
the Big Ten Network. “There are just 
too many uncertainties now to go 
forward and have fall sports in the 
Big Ten.”
Which essentially just echoed 
what he said in the statement put out 
by the Big Ten today:
“The mental and physical health 
and welfare of our student-athletes 
has been at the center of every decision 
we have made regarding the ability to 
proceed forward. As time progressed 
and after hours of discussion with 
our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging 

Infectious Diseases and the Big 
Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it 
became abundantly clear that there 
was too much uncertainty regarding 
potential medical risks to allow our 
student-athletes to compete this fall.”
Essentially, the Big Ten, along 
with its presidents and chancellors, 
don’t know what the consequences 
of holding fall athletics will be, and 
that makes them worried enough to 
vote the season down. When asked 
whether the vote was unanimous, 
Warren demurred.
“Our schools, we don’t always 
agree.” Warren said. “... But I think 
people understand, and I take that 
from a passion standpoint, that we 
will be together in the Big Ten. So 
I just think it’s important to make 
that very clear. I would rather not 
have a detailed discussion about your 
question of whether the vote was 
unanimous or was it not unanimous.”
Translation for this one: it was 

not unanimous. And it’s pretty well 
known who at least one of the non-
unanimous voters are. Nebraska 
said, in a statement today backed 
by its system president Ted Carter, 
chancellor Ronnie Green, athletic 
director Bill Moos and head football 
coach Scott Frost:
“We are very disappointed in the 
decision by the Big Ten conference 
to postpone the fall football season, 
as we have been and continue to be 
ready to play,” the joint statement 
read.
Michigan 
president 
Mark 
Schlissel confirmed with a statement 
on Tuesday that he voted in favor of 
postponement despite football coach 
Jim Harbaugh advocating playing in 
the fall.
After tip-toeing ever-so gracefully 
around the question surrounding 
unanimous 
voting, 
Warren 
reaffirmed that the season being 
postponed had to deal with many 

factors surrounding the spread of the 
virus, not just one. 
Directly 
addressed 
was 
myocarditis, the heart affliction 
that seems to be worrying medical 
professionals as a possible effect of 
COVID-19, but Warren said the new 
concern over it was not a primary 
reason for the vote, rather just added 
to the many concerns and of course 

“uncertainties.” 
Despite all this lack of certainty 
by the commissioner and conference 
alike, Warren put on a face to assure 
the audience of one final thing about 
the Big Ten before the end of his 
interview:
“We will continue to be absolutely 
dominant, not just academically but 
athletically.”

NICHOLAS STOLL
Summer Managing Sports Editor

Ethan Sears: The stories we’ll miss without a fall season

There’s this moment I can’t get out 
of my head. I haven’t been able to for 
five months — not since mid-March, 
when COVID-19 shut down college 
sports. 
It’s 
Duncan 
Robinson, 
and 
he’s standing in 
the far corner, 
poised 
behind 
the 
3-point 
line. There’s a 
little over two 
minutes left and 
Michigan, in a 
packed 
maize 
and blue Staples 
Center, is close — so close — to the 
Final Four. From where I’m sitting, 
up in the auxiliary press box, up near 
the ceiling, you can see Robinson’s 
defender leave him, the ball come to 
him and then float towards the net. 
All those fans down there in maize 
and blue, they lose their collective 
minds. Robinson turns to the bench 
and yells. The game is all but over, and 
that weird, improbable run is going 
to go for another week on the sport’s 
biggest stage. 
In that singular moment back in 
March of 2018, it feels like the whole 
world is coalescing around Michigan 
basketball and every character on that 
team, Duncan Robinson chief among 
them.
That singular moment, it’s why we 
love sports.

Robinson’s story has been told again 
and again. You’ve almost certainly 
heard it before, but as a quick reminder 
we’ll rehash it here. Robinson started 
his college career playing Division 
III ball at Williams College. He 
transferred to Michigan and, after 
sitting a year, worked his way into 
the rotation as a 3-point specialist. 
In his senior year, he struggled and 
got replaced by Isaiah Livers, then 
a freshman, in Michigan’s starting 
lineup. He came off the bench the 
rest of the year, found a key role on a 
team that went to the Final Four, and it 
seemed likely that the story would end 
there. Out of college, he signed a two-
way contract with the Miami Heat 
and seemed consigned to basketball 
purgatory. Then he started hitting 
threes for them, too and now he’s in 
the NBA bubble, playing a key role on a 
playoff team. When his contract is up, 
he’s going to make a ton of money. 
That’s cool as hell.
I’m not telling you this because 
you didn’t already know — this is 
probably the 100th time you’ve heard 
Robinson’s story. I’m talking about 
this now for the same reason I can’t get 
that snapshot out of my head:
When I think about why it’s a shame 
the Big Ten postponed fall sports, I 
think about Duncan Robinson.
Hold on a minute. Don’t laugh. 
I know Duncan Robinson plays a 
winter sport. I understand there’s 
better reasons to have sports or not, 

there’s more at play here than one 
guy’s human interest story. Playing 
sports right now might not be the 
smartest thing. Having students back 
on campus — especially if, like a lot of 
schools, your coronavirus mitigation 
plan amounts to a shoulder shrug and 
an eye roll — might not end well.
The Big Ten’s decision puts moral 
and public health obligations over 
financial gains and, all told, it’s the 
right call. The U.S. has done a terrible 
job at fighting the coronavirus. We’re 
reaping what we sowed, but that 
doesn’t mean we can’t lament it. So 
let’s get back to Duncan Robinson and 
all the other stories that make sports 
worth watching.
Remember when Jordan Poole hit 
the shot? If you’re this far into this 
story, you probably remember where 
you were sitting and who you were 
with. I’ll never forget talking with 

Duncan Robinson after Jordan Poole 
hit the shot.
Robinson had fouled out of the 
game. He thought it’d be his last 
college game, thought he’d been 
partially responsible for a crushing 
loss. The look on his face, the tone 
in his voice when he spoke in the 
locker room. That was something to 
remember.
“I don’t think I’ve ever cried tears 
of joy,” Robinson said that night. “But 
I was damn close.”
Forget, for a minute, about the 
fact that Robinson is now an NBA 
player with an NBA career and all the 
amenities that come with it. Because 
right then, he was a college kid and the 
best thing he’d ever been involved in 
had just gotten improbably extended 
for another week.
Now think about all the athletes 
at Michigan (and elsewhere), all with 

their own stories and hours of work 
and breakthroughs to get to where 
they are, and what they all must 
have been on Tuesday when the 
announcement came down.
Think about Nick Blankenburg, 
a junior defenseman on the hockey 
team who plays every game for his 
grandfather, and Nick Granowicz, his 
teammate, who’s playing for his mom. 
Think about Mohammed Zakyi and 
Omar Farouk Osman, who started 
their soccer careers playing with paper 
bags and folded clothes, and now likely 
won’t have their senior years. Think 
about Paige Jones and all the people 
in New Bremen, Ohio watching her 
play volleyball for Michigan. Think 
about Maddie Nolan working her 
way back from a microfracture to play 
basketball for Michigan.
Think about what they’re feeling 
now, after their fall seasons got 
canceled. Those that play in the winter 
can’t be feeling good about their 
chances of having a season either.
The Big Ten made the right 
decision. But as long as we can 
acknowledge that, let’s also take a 
minute to appreciate all the stories, 
all the players, all the games and 
everything else we won’t get to have 
this year, because it’s all improbable, 
and at any moment it could all be over. 
Now, more than ever.
Sears can be reached at searseth@
umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_sears.

ETHAN 
SEARS

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Kevin Warren shared his thoughts on BTN following the postponement of fall sports.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Without fall sports, the stories that make us love sports will dry up.

