Big Ten will play football after all
8-game season will start weekend of Oct. 23-24
The Big Ten is going to give fall football a shot after all.
Less than five weeks after pushing fall sports to spring in the name of player safety during the pandemic, the conference changed course Wednesday and said it plans to open its football season the weekend of Oct. 23-24.
All 14 teams will play eight regular-season games in eight weeks, plus have an opportunity to play a ninth game on Dec. 19 when the conference championship game is in Indianapolis — if all goes well.
That should give the Big Ten an opportunity to compete for the national championship.
The Big Ten said its Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously Tuesday to restart sports. The vote last month was 11-3 to postpone, with Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska voting against.
“We’re in a better place, regardless of how we got here or how painful it was during the time we waited to get this moment,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “That’s all behind us. What’s beautiful is that we have a process and protocols in place that’s based on science and based on lessons learned since Aug. 11.”
The move does not mean Big Ten stadiums will be packed with fans. Tickets will not be sold to the general public, though some attendance is expected.
The decision to play came after sharp pressure from coaches, players, parents and even President Donald Trump, all of them pushing for a Big Ten football season. The conference is home to a number of battleground states in the November election, and Trump swifly applauded the move in a tweet while
his campaign suggested the return of college football was “in no small part” due to the president’s leadership.
The emergence of daily, rapid-response COVID-19 testing helped trigger a re-vote. The Big Ten said it will begin daily antigen testing of all its fall sport athletes, coaches and staff Sept. 30.
Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, chairman of the presidents’ council, said the turning point for him on giving the green light to football — even though many students have not been allowed back on the Evanston, Illinois, campus — didn’t come until this past weekend.
“Medical opinions changed,” Schapiro said. “Paul Samuelson, the great economist was once asked why he changed his mind. And he said, ‘When the facts change, the mind changes.’”
Team positivity rates and population positivity rate
IMG Academy, Bradenton, Fla., ESPN2, 9 p.m.
thresholds will be used to determine whether teams must halt practice or play. The earliest an athlete will be able to return to game competition would be 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis, following a cardiac evaluation and clearance from a cardiologist designated by the university.
Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, was also among the concerns cited by the Big Ten in August.
“Everyone associated with the Big Ten should be very proud of the groundbreaking steps that are now being taken to better protect the health and safety of the student-athletes and surrounding communities,” said Dr. Jim Borchers, team physician for Ohio State.
The Big Ten will take a bow, but the conference has been battered for a month, and businesses in college towns from Nebraska to Maryland have lost millions in sales.