Ohio State football: Big Ten Presidents hid communication from the public

In regards to whether or not Ohio State football, or football for any team in the Big Ten, would occur, the Big Ten Presidents made sure their conversations wouldn’t be seen by the public.

Have you ever been scolded by your parents for something you lied about? They were madder at the fact that you hid it than the fact that you did it. I know I had that happen to me when I was a kid. It made me lie less. That scenario didn’t seem to happen to many Big Ten Presidents.

According to a story by the Washington Post, the Big Ten Presidents intentionally hid their communications from the public about whether or not to have a football season amid the pandemic. Instead, they held these conversations on a private forum.

13 of the 14 Big Ten schools are public institutions. Because every school except Northwestern is public, they are subject to Freedom of Information Requests. That means that anything a public official says or emails or does is subject to be requested by anyone in the public.

Apparently, the Big Ten Presidents were trying to skirt this rule by using a platform other than email to talk about their decision-making regarding a Fall football season. They instead used something called Boardvantage to communicate.

This is deeply concerning to me. In the WaPo story, it indicates that Big Ten Presidents were concerned that their emails could be requested by the public, so they suggested moving conversations to the private forum so that the public could not see them.

As public universities, they are bound by certain principles. If what is in this story is true, it’s extremely troubling that the universities would try to hide conversation to avoid public scrutiny. It breeds distrust towards these Presidents.

In the end, Ohio State football did happen and they went on to play for a national championship. It will be interesting to see if the public ever is allowed to see the conversations that transpired about this topic.