Minnesota wide receiver opts out of 2020 season

Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman, a projected first- round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, has opted out of playing in the 2020 college football season due to COVID-19.

Bateman, the reigning Big Ten Receiver of the Year, announced his decision Tuesday morning on Instagram.

Several other notable college football players have also opted out for similar reasons, including Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley and Illinois running back Ra' Von Bonner.

As a sophomore, Bateman finished his 2019 campaign with 60 receptions for 1,219 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was named AP Third team All-America.

TCU: Coach Gary Patterson apologized Tuesday for repeating a racial slur when telling a player to stop using the slur in team meetings. Patterson's tweet came a day after school Chancellor Victor Boschini said the nearly 20-year leader of TCU's program, who is white, had apologized for using the slur during a confrontation with linebacker Dylan Jordan, who is Black, at practice.

"I apologize for the use of a word that, in any context, is unacceptable," Patterson wrote on Twitter. "I have always encouraged our players to do better and be better and I must live by the same standards." TEXAS TECH: Texas Tech is planning for the likelihood of being limited to 25% of the maximum capacity at Jones AT&T Stadium this football season, a consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview late Monday with Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, school President Lawrence Schovanec said the likelihood of that scenario “given the current circumstances in the state, is reasonably high.” That would mean only a little more than 15,000 fans would be allowed into Jones AT&T Stadium, whose listed capacity is 60,454. Tech has already begun planning for how to make it work, a little more than a month before the season starts.