The Ohio State Buckeyes are in their own bubble, but that may not be enough to save their college football season

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State football operates in its own bubble. In the pandemic world, bubbles are sports’ solution. The NBA and NHL are isolating their players while successfully restarting their seasons. Major League Baseball is out in the world and struggling.

In college football, a bubble is impossible. The Big Ten can’t gather its 14 members in a small Midwestern town and play. But as the college football seasons crumbles around them, the Ohio State Buckeyes find themselves in a bubble of their own.

They believe they can try to play this season. They haven’t seen any of their top players opt out of the season yet. Their captains released a letter Friday explaining why, unlike the claims of many players around the country, they don’t feel exploited during the pandemic, and they aren’t worried that their school is skimping on safety.

“I think my level of confidence in our safety is really high,” center Josh Myers, one of Ohio State’s seven captains, said in a conference call with reporters earlier this week. “There’s nothing more that our coaches and trainers and staff can do to keep us safe. I can’t say enough about what they’re doing, and I would say my level of concern for safety is small. I’m not concerned.”

That may not be a widespread feeling. At Syracuse University, players declined to practice on Thursday and Friday over safety concerns. Colorado State paused practice as well, over coronavirus safety concerns and other potential issues. Around the country, more than 30 players have chosen to opt out of the season, including the three best non-Buckeyes in the Big Ten -- Penn State’s Micah Parsons, Purdue’s Rondale Moore and Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman. And on Saturday, the Big Ten itself announced a practice slowdown -- instead of transitioning to shoulder pads for the third practice of the preseason, the league is holding teams at practicing only with helmets. That’s usually required only of the first two practices, while the players ease into camp.

But the Big Ten wants to continue the easing -- while it considers stopping.

For Ohio State fans, this is incongruous. Why did OSU players, who spoke to reporters Tuesday, and coach Ryan Day, who spoke to reporters Thursday, sound so confident this week if the season is now in jeopardy? Why did the Big Ten release a new 10-game schedule for every team on Wednesday if the season is now in jeopardy?

As for the schedule, you must make plans during the pandemic, or you’ll never make progress. Making plans and scrapping them is far more functional than delaying and waiting for ... what, exactly? As for the OSU confidence of the last few days -- the issue is that apparently few schools were ever as confident as Ohio State.

Ohio State operates in the top tier of college football, competing for national titles in a way that no other school north of the Mason-Dixon line does consistently. When it comes to coronavirus protections, it’s easy to imagine Ohio State operating at a high level as well. Money makes it easier to be safe, and the Buckeyes have money. They also have motivation. Ohio State is chasing a national title. No other team in the Big Ten is thinking that way. If Big Ten university presidents are asking what they’re trying to save this fall, the OSU answer about what a football season means in Ohio is different than the answer that exists for any other school.

That motivation and money is why Ohio State’s captains could release a message Friday that read as a response to a previous message from a group of Big Ten players (it claimed more than 1,000 players backed it) that called on the conference to listen to players and to raise COVID-19 safety standards.

The Buckeyes’ response read, essentially, “We’re good.”

“We respect that these thoughts about safety and protocols may not be shared by all student-athletes across the country. But as Ohio State Buckeyes, we stand with the decisions of our athletic department and conference,” read the end of the statement.

That’s great for Ohio State. But it doesn’t get them closer to a football season.

Their bubble isn’t particularly useful, because a one-team bubble won’t save the Buckeyes. If college football vanishes this fall, their bubble might only serve to frustrate Ohio State.

The Buckeyes really believe they can play, but the problem is, they can’t only play themselves. A 10-game season of intra-squad scrimmages might prove more challenging than some normal Big Ten games. But Ohio State’s trust in its coronavirus testing protocols, its resources that make every safety precaution possible, and the tight relationship between the coaches and players that creates a two-way belief system, isn’t enough.

Rutgers has to feel that way, too. And Maryland. And Northwestern and Indiana and Michigan State and Minnesota and Nebraska and Iowa. At least most of them have to be on board. Big Ten presidents held a regularly-scheduled remote meeting on Saturday, but didn’t vote on whether to cancel the season. Ohio State is currently between presidents -- Kristina Johnson will officially assume the post on Aug. 24 -- so no OSU rep was on Saturday’s call. But Ohio State planned to be briefed, and along the way, Ohio State believes its points have been made despite its presidential transition.

The MAC did cancel fall football Saturday, aiming for the spring, and some view that as the first step. If the MAC season went away, so will the Big Ten. That thinking may be true, but it still doesn’t sound logical to me. Every decision is a balance, and the choice here is about health and safety, and the value of playing. Part of the that value is, yes, money, as athletic departments try to stay afloat. Football TV cash would help that. But there’s also inherent value, connected to how many people care about something, and how much they care about it. In that value part of the equation, the Big Ten is in a different place than the MAC.

Say you’re planning to go out to dinner and freezing rain begins to fall. If you’re headed to Burger King with a two-for-one Whopper Junior coupon, you might stay home. If you have a reservation at a white table cloth restaurant for your anniversary, you might still get in your car, but pay extra attention behind the wheel and slow down on the highway.

It’s a decision about dinner and safety. But it’s not the same decision.

So the MAC shouldn’t make the Big Ten’s decision. The Big Ten has more reasons to play, and more resources to do it as safely as possible. It’s quite possible that the conclusion will be to cancel the fall, but the Big Ten should make its own decision, just as it did when it became the first conference to cancel non-conference games.

And what the Big Ten decides, Ohio State must live with. Any suggestions about Ohio State playing an independent schedule or joining another conference for this season are short-sighted. It would look bad for Ohio State, like the Buckeyes were so football-crazy, they’d do anything to play. And the long-term welfare of the Big Ten is more valuable than a football season, even if $50 million or $80 million to $100 million might be at stake.

Ohio State hasn’t been unrealistic. Day and athletic director Gene Smith both expressed total confidence in Ohio State’s ability to practice safely, but they expressed reservations, for now, about the ability to play safely. But the approach was keep going, keep trying, keep believing and keep balancing.

It’s just not only about them.

Myers, with most of the captains echoing his thoughts, said, “I feel like if I want to, I should have the choice to play college football.”

Most people with the Ohio State program might agree with that. But the Buckeyes can’t actually play themselves.