Big Ten, Pac-12 first Power 5 leagues to postpone season
The Big Ten and Pac-12 called off their fall football seasons on Tuesday because of concerns about COVID-19, taking two of college football’s five power conferences out of a crumbling season.
Five months after the first spikes in coronavirus cases in the U.S. led to the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament, the still raging pandemic has begun tearing down a sport that generates billion of dollars for the schools that compete in it. Despite pleas from players, coaches and President Donald Trump in recent days to play on, 40% of major college football teams have now decided to punt on a fall season.
The Big Ten’s announcement, that it was postponing all fall sports and hoping to make them up in the second semester, came first Tuesday afternoon. An hour later the Pac-12, the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl partner, called a news conference to say that all sports in its conference would be paused until Jan. 1, including basketball.
“This was an extremely difficult and painful decision that we know will have important impacts on our student-athletes, coaches, administrators and our fans,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. “We know nothing will ease that.”
The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference are still moving forward with plans to conduct a season as college football’s lack of centralized leadership has left every conference to decide for itself.
The Big Ten’s announcement came six days after the conference that includes historic programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State had released a revised conference-only football sched
continue their discussions.
“When you hear about the protocols,” DeSantis said of the medical/safety standards the ACC is following because of the coronavirus pandemic, “for these athletes the risk is very low. But whatever risk there is, to me outside of this structured environment, I think the risk goes up. I don’t think the risk goes down.”
GATORS ON BOARD
Thrasher said he feels “relatively certain” that the [Southeastern Conference], to which the Florida Gators belong, “is aligned with us. … It’s up to us to make the environment safe and I think we’ve done that. What we need to do now is send this message to the rest of those schools out there that may be teetering about whether to play or not and let them know that a university like Florida State is ready to play — and I think for the right reasons.
“We’ve tried to imagine every single circumstance that could happen. We think we can do it safely.”
SEC commisioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday went on the Dan Patrick Show and said, “Our medical advisory group has said, “Yes, we can continue to go forward. Were that advice to change, that certainly would be a stopping point.”
The Big 12, the other Power 5 conference, was set to meet Tuesday evening to discuss its future.
Tuesday night, the ACC and SEC released almost simultaneous statements that were very similar.
“The safety of our students, staff and overall campus communities will always be our top priority,” was part of the ACC statement. “... We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.”
“I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes,” Sankey wrote as part of the SEC statement, as he noted the conference would continue to “monitor developments around COVID-19...”
CANES WANT FOOTBALL
DeSantis said the University of Miami “is right there with President Thrasher in terms of wanting the kids to be able to play and I know Florida, USF, everyone I’ve talked with has been supportive of that.”
Frenk told the Miami Herald last week that he believes football can be safely played if UM athletes continue to follow the strict protocols that have been instituted. He even said he believes fans could safely attend games if they are allowed. Hard Rock Stadium and Dolphins officials are communicating with local government officials regarding various venue possibilities, UM athletic director Blake James previously said.
UM was scheduled to have its fifth football practice of training camp Tuesday night.
“There are ways to carry out events — particularly at outdoor venues — while observing science-based public health recommendations and guidance,” Frenk told the Herald. “If fans observe that guidance, I do think it can safely work.”
Thrasher said the five commissioners of the Power 5 conferences met this past weekend and that two commissioners “expressed some real concerns” about continuing to play, and they listed a number of issues.
MYOCARDITIS CONCERNS
“There was one new issue that came out and that was from a physician apparently that represents the NCAA, about myocarditis and the potential impact that would have as a result of COVID,” the FSU president said. “That seemed to get a lot of attention nationally and it caused a lot of conferences to say, ‘Let’s take a step back. Let’s review where we are.’”
The Myocarditis Foundation defines myocarditis as “a disease that causes inflammation of the heart muscle,” which in turn “enlarges and weakens the heart, creates scar tissue and forces it to work harder to circulate blood and oxygen throughout the body. While we often associate cardiovascular conditions with elderly populations, myocarditis can affect anyone, including young adults, children and infants. In fact, it most often affects otherwise healthy, young, athletic types with the high-risk population being those of ages from puberty through their early 30’s, affecting males twice as often as females.”
The condition is often caused by a viral infection.
Said Thrasher: “Our presidents met two days ago and we went through all of that. And the issues that were presented, frankly none of them we had not considered before. We did agree, though, that we ought to go and look at the medical aspects again just one more time to make sure our protocols, the other teams’ protocols, are in place, and we’ve been doing that.”
PROSPECTIVE OPPONENTS
FSU athletic director David Coburn attended the news conference and was asked by DeSantis about individual schools/teams, such as, it appears, the Big Ten’s Nebraska, that might be looking for opportunities to play.
“It’s going to be very hard to tell what is going to happen if some of the schools in some of these conferences that decide not to play wish to continue to play,” Coburn said. “I don’t know what their conference bylaws are like, but certainly some of the coaches and athletic directors are indicating that some of them are looking for games. It could get very interesting.”
Said DeSantis: “Recently there were discussions among different presidents of different conferences about whether they should just deep-six the football season entirely and that caused a reaction of college players all around the country saying, ‘We want to play.’ And we’re here to say from the state of Florida, ‘We want you guys to play.’”