The tyranny of the now

Look, I get it. Or at least I think I do.

Some folks just can't wait.

They want what they want now, because they've worked hard for it or no one's adequately explained why they can't have it or What About The Children. And those are all legitimate reasons.

So I understand why parents at Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State are all up in arms about the Big Ten's decision not to play football (or any other fall sports) in the middle of a pandemic. Common sense should tell you that's just a common sense decision, but common sense tends to get crowded out of the team picture when emotions get involved.

This is not to say the parents don't have a point. They do. The Big Ten's decision was arbitrary. It did not adequately explain itself. And it did not adequately let those most affected by the decision -- the players -- in on the process.

But. But.

But the players are always going to want to play. They're always going to be wholly focused on the short term at the expense of the long term. So of course they think it's going to be perfectly OK to go kiting around half the country to breathe for three-plus hours on other kids three or four states away.

Yes, their protocols are working now, with no one else on campus. But what happens when 40,000 other kids show up who aren't observing those protocols? How long before half your team is in quarantine because they, you know, went to class the way they're supposed to? How long before the season becomes a mere parody of a season, and the conference is compelled to shut it down anyway?

Because that's what's going to happen, you know. The Big Ten parents can point to the SEC and the ACC and say "See, they're playing," but what are they going to say in October when it falls apart?

And it will. It will because the Bastard Plague isn't going anywhere. It doesn't care about college football, and it doesn't care how badly your son wants to play.

And all this attendant chatter now that Iowa and  Nebraska might jump ship and go to the Big 12, or Ohio State might join the ACC?

It's just that, chatter. Because it's August 16 and the start of the season, if there is one, is less than three weeks away, and you can't just join another conference in that short a time. Schedules, presumably, are already set.  So even if Nebraska or Iowa or Ohio State wanted to play this fall, who would they play?

And if these other conferences could just throw something together for this fall to accommodate them, where would that leave them after this fall? What if the Big 12 or ACC or SEC decided expansion wasn't feasible at the moment? Where would a Nebraska or Iowa or Ohio State go then?

Because it's pretty damn certain the Big Ten wouldn't take them back. Not without plenty of heavy lifting to rebuild all the bridges they'd burned.

But, again, people want what they want, and they want it now. And so they're not thinking that college football isn't going away for good just because it won't happen this fall.

Maybe they play in the spring. Maybe they don't play until next fall. But they're going to play.

Patience. It's just not a thing in this crazy world anymore, apparently.