Big Ten Parents Seeking to Make Conference 'Uncomfortable' on Decision to Postpone Season

Randy Wade, father of Ohio State's Shaun Wade, is organizing a peaceful protest on the steps of the Big Ten Conference office on Friday.

The Ohio State football parents wrote a letter last week to the Big Ten Conference demanding that they reconsider their decision to postpone the college football season and that they share the data that led them to make that decision. But apparently, they haven't stopped there.

Several reporters have posted on social media that Randy Wade, the father of Ohio State captain Shaun Wade, is organizing a peaceful protest in Chicago in front of the Big Ten headquarters on Friday. Wade is flying to the Windy City from Florida on Friday morning and is expecting other parents from around the league to join him.

See ya "Early Friday Morning" We gotta Fight and we can't let these young men FIGHT ALONE.... ALL BIG TEN FANS STAND UP.... pic.twitter.com/qjbaQVcRSX

— Randy L Wade💯%🐐 f@❌ℹLy..... (@gslsff) August 18, 2020

"How many petitions must there be for the Big Ten to actually look into this?" Wade told ESPN on Tuesday. "We only have a certain amount of time to correct this, so we need to come together and show more unity and just make them uncomfortable, make them come out of their shells and give us some answers to some questions and hopefully rewind back and open things back up."

We need a Rosemont logistics person someone to give information about area... And a second location if we can't be on the Big Ten property...

— Randy L Wade💯%🐐 f@❌ℹLy..... (@gslsff) August 18, 2020

"There's a lot of power in numbers," Wade said. "I'm hoping we can react and get up there and stir it up and make a change, hopefully. I'm hoping [Warren] reacts before Friday and says some things that satisfies us. That's my hope. We've got to put the pressure on to keep fighting. I know there's more important things going on in the world right now, but this is important to these kids."

Wade's call for support from other teams is being heard.

Iowa parents will join Ohio State at B1G office Friday https://t.co/B9pyPEUNP5

— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) August 18, 2020

Parents of Nebraska and Penn State players have also written letters to Commissioner Kevin Warren, but it's unconfirmed on social media whether any of them would attend Friday's gathering.

It seems that the most upsetting part of this process is that there has been a lack of transparency from the league presidents and the conference office on the decision to postpone the season. Despite multiple requests, the data that led to a fall cancellation has not been made public.

There was even a report circulating on Monday that a formal vote may not have taken place among league institutions to cancel the fall season.

"It's unclear to me whether there was ever a vote or not," said Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour in a news conference on Monday when she was asked directly how Penn State president Eric Barron voted. "Nobody has ever told me there was. I just don't know whether there actually was a vote by the chancellors and presidents."

"It is clear to me that Penn State and Eric Barron both on our campus and as he took his thoughts to the Big Ten and the various conversations that they had, explored every option to play -- every option that would have been acceptable from a health and safety standpoint," she said. "To say that Dr. Barron fought for the ability of our student-athletes to play this fall, I think that would be a correct assumption."

If the goal is to make the league uncomfortable, they probably have a good chance to succeed. Whether or not it will overturn the conference's decision is another step entirely.

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