Our latest installment of As the Big Ten Turns focused on Ohio attorney general Dave Yost threatening to bring a lawsuit toward the Big Ten on behalf of his client, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Yost's Nebraskan counterpart has seen his move and taken it one step further.
Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson on Friday sent a letter to Kevin Warren seeking to see if the Big Ten was in violation of the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act.
"It has come to my attention that your corporation is operating and conducting business within the State of Nebraska without being registered and/or failing to maintain registration to conduct business within the State of Nebraska," Peterson's letter states.
A ha! a legion of Big Ten fans shouted upon reading Peterson's letter. THIS will be the technicality that ends the Big Ten shutdown after all!
In reality, this seems like the ultimate Hail Mary. Better yet, it seems like a Hail Mary that, once completed, would require another Hail Mary to actually reach the end zone. I'm no legal expert, but it seems highly, highly dubious that the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act is the loophole that brings the 2020 Big Ten football season back to life, or even creates any meaningful movement therein.
Furthermore, it continues the ongoing storyline of sustained dissent in Ohio and Nebraska -- and basically nowhere else. Nebraska has registered formal protest of the Big Ten's decision at every level it can -- from Scott Frost threatening to go rouge, to Nebraska chancellor Ronnie Green voting against the postponement, to Nebraska football players filing a lawsuit, to Senator Ben Sasse begging the conference to reconsider, to Nebraska system president Ted Carter urging Warren to hold off on a vote, to state legislators signing a multi-state letter of protest, to now this.
Ohio has matched that fury, and Jim Harbaugh and James Franklin have had their moments of public dissent, but other than that it's been nothing but deafening silence.
Everyone in Nebraska (and Ohio) can stomp their feet and hold their breath as long as they want, but they way out of this purgatory isn't through a legal technicality, but changing minds at the virtual conference table of Big Ten presidents.
And on that front, there was a development Friday that seemed like a major one on the surface but really wasn't, upon closer inspection.
CBS Sports's Dennis Dodd tweeted this Friday afternoon:
The bottom of the resolution reads: The University of Minnesota supports proceeding with the Big Ten fall sports including football commence (unclear) earliest logistically-possible date for each sport, with appropriate safeguards and monitoring. On the surface, this seems like the exact boilerplate language that a Board of Regents exists to give its rubber-stamp approval. So how could they vote this down? If returning to play at the earliest logistically-possible date, with appropriate safeguards and monitoring, is still too soon, when will Minnesota regents approve the Gophers taking the field again? Will they ever??? Turns out, this result had nothing to do with sports and everything to do with order and procedure. No need to panic.
And while we're on the front of return-to-play votes and frustration with the lack of communication inside the Big Ten walls, where does all that stand as of Friday? Isn't there supposed to be a vote coming early next week?
Oy vey.
In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.