COLUMN: Ryan Day Gaslights Big Ten In His Version Of A Political Ad
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- One can only hope that after his latest political ad, Ryan Day wins his reelection campaign when his position of Ohio State head football coach comes up on the ballot in November.
Day’s newest campaign ad Thursday was solid. He advocated for his players. He mentioned how much he cared about those players and their parents. He made a promise that Big Ten football can start by mid-October. He even placated his base of supporters with this statement: “Duke is playing Notre Dame, and Clemson is playing Wake Forest this weekend. Our players want to know: Why can't they play?"
Wait, hang on. It appears I’m now learning Day’s job isn’t an elected position. So, you’re telling me he doesn’t have to pander to an outraged fan base? Day doesn’t have to fake basic understanding of the effects of the coronavirus and the decision of the Big Ten Council of the Presidents and Chancellors to cancel the fall 2020 sports calendar? Day doesn’t have to take to social media to campaign to his base of supporters in order to keep his job? That can’t be true. Everything Day did Thursday screamed of somebody in the political fight of his life.
Pardon the football pun here but Day could’ve gone the whole nine yards with this statement intended to gaslight the league Ohio State resides in and further isolate itself from the rest of the conference by simply mentioning the red alarm political taboo of Powers Warren, the 21-year-old son of Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, being a tight end at Mississippi State. I’ll just assume Day ran out of space on the graphic clearly done by somebody or multiple somebodys in the Ohio State University athletics department. Don’t kid yourself, Ohio State’s athletics administration knew about Day’s statement and proved it by retweeting the graphic off Day’s Twitter account to its 408,000 followers.
I’ll give Day credit for three things: 1) He can’t ever claim his sole focus is advocating for his players’ wishes. They want to play and Day wants to make that clear to everybody he can. Check. 2) He intends to convince each and every one of his recruiting targets (Ohio State currently has the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in 2021 according to Sports Illustrated) that he doesn’t agree one bit with this decision by the Big Ten COP/C. Got it. Done. 3) He correctly pointed out the communication by Warren, the Big Ten Conference and the league’s COP/C has been below average at best. Mission accomplished Mr. Day.
However, ever since the press conference on Dec. 4, 2019 announcing Ohio State’s transition of power from Urban Meyer to Day, the new leader of Ohio State’s football program has been exalted for his management skills, work ethic and CEO demeanor. His career record of 16-1 as a head coach of the Buckeyes makes it hard for folks to argue that point most days of the year.
Except, on Sept. 10, 2020, Day didn’t show any of that leadership reputation. No, what Day did on that particular date of the calendar was something he’d likely punish any of the players on his roster if they executed in the same fashion. He threw a written temper tantrum designed to gaslight the conference that has existed for 83 years longer than Day has been alive and I’m guessing will be around 83 years after Day no longer walks this planet. Day advocated a ‘donkey see, donkey do’ principle that because the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference are attempting a fall football season without still being able to answer to the issue of contact tracing, the Big Ten should try as well.
FACT: People are dying every single day in this country because of COVID-19. However, Day wants to convince you one of everybody’s highest priorities should be giving his football program an opportunity to compete for a championship trophy. That’s correct, you understand that correctly. The University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones is trying to navigate his multi-billion dollar school budget and endowment during a COVID-19 epidemic but Day wants him to drop all that to focus on his team's national title dreams.
FACT: Day wants you to believe he still has no idea why the 2020 fall season was postponed. I refuse to believe Day, who holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration at the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree from Boston College in Administrative Studies, is that ignorant or at all stupid. However, if it wants to act like it, I’m happy to spell out the reason for him, c-o-r-o-n-a-v-i-r-u-s.
Nobody but those maniacal Ohio State fans needed this statement. On a day after Wisconsin, which had a preseason No. 12 team in the first Associated Press poll, had to shut down workouts until the end of this month because of its latest COVID-19 testing results, Ohio State didn’t need to produce another tantrum statement. We get it. You need football more than you care about public health. Forgive me, but even when they don’t get their way, I expect more out of Day and Day’s boss, athletics director Gene Smith and Smith’s boss, university president Kristina M. Johnson. Maybe today I learned that I shouldn’t.