Two college leagues cancel football, but it’s full-steam ahead for NFL
Pac-12 and Big Ten conference officials err on the side of caution amid pandemic
On the same day two top U.S. college football leagues scrapped their fall seasons, the NFL underscored its intention to proceed as planned.
We’ll get to the latter eventually. First, it’s important to address what the Big Ten Conference was first to decide Tuesday afternoon, and what went into it.
The league composed of 14 universities from the American Midwest eastward to the upper Atlantic coast officially announced that all fall sports, including football, have been scrubbed.
“SMH,” Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields tweeted shortly afterward. That’s the social media acronym for “shaking my head.”
The Big Ten said the possibility of holding some kind of football season next spring will “continue to be evaluated,” and you can bet league coaches and athletic directors will collectively wrack their brains to try to make that work.
If not, the next time Fields and many other top Big Ten and Pac12 juniors/seniors-to-be play football probably will be in the NFL, in fall 2021. Numerous lesser NCAA leagues had previously pulled the plug on all fall 2020 sports (a move Canadian universities and colleges made in June), but the Big Ten is the first of the so-called Power 5 conferences at U.S. college football’s uppermost tier to do so.
The Pac-12 conference — composed mostly of West Coast universities such as Southern Cal, Stanford and UCLA — hours later followed the Big Ten’s lead and cancelled all fall sports.
Whether the other three leading conferences might do likewise is the huge remaining question. The Southeastern Conference (SEC), Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Big 12 on Tuesday seemed intent on playing their trimmed seasons.
Just six days earlier, the Big Ten had announced a 10-game, conference-only schedule beginning in September. What changed?
“The overarching issue that we always had to keep at the top of our mind was the fact … that the health, the safety and the wellness — both physical and mental — of our student-athletes was going to be at the top of my list,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told Big Ten Network.
“As things began to evolve, you look at the number of cases that are spiking, the number of deaths (from COVID-19). … We just believe, collectively, there’s too much uncertainty at this point in time in our country to encourage our student-athletes to participate in fall sports.”
ESPN reported Monday that a rare inflammation of the heart muscle had been found in at least five Big Ten football players who had previously tested positive for COVID-19. That surely was an impactful factor in the league’s sudden about-face.
The Big Ten backed its decision by pointing to recommendations it received from the league’s task force for emerging infectious diseases, as well as from its sports medicine committee.
Conversely, Sports Business Daily reported that the ACC’s medical advisory group had given its OK for that league’s fall football season to proceed. Yes, even in college sports, recommendations from medical experts don’t always jibe.
This is yet more proof since March that there always seemingly will be medical experts and virologists the world over — never mind politicians — who won’t ever agree on the right ways to battle COVID-19.
In a way, medical experts are akin to pro sports general managers. Just as no one in football, hockey, baseball or basketball knows more about potential draftees than the GMs, in the end, on draft day, they’re guessing.
Similarly, all the medical experts we see on TV or learn about in the news are guessing as to the best course of action.
The only people sure about what should have been done regarding COVID-19 weeks or months ago have some political axe to grind. The rest of us live in the real world.
Anyway, back to football. Colleges aside, what about the NFL? It’s still full-steam ahead for them.
The NFL on Tuesday underscored its intention to play a full 17-week season followed by the playoffs, culminating with Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7 in Tampa.
“We’re very confident in our (COVID-19) protocols, and focused on a season that … starts and ends as scheduled,” Peter O’Reilly, the league’s executive vice-president for club business and league events, said per TheAthletic.com.