Big Ten trying to learn from others

But conference knows sustained health cannot be guaranteed

The college football season didn’t sprint out of the starting blocks without stumbles.

Before the first weekend, games were postponed because of COVID-19 cases across the nation. More than 30 college football games have been canceled or postponed.

The Big Ten has plenty of faulty blueprints from which to learn when its delayed season kicked off Friday night as the Illinois Fighting Illini faced the Wisconsin Badgers. There’s no wiggle room for teams in this nine-game, no-break, conference-only season experiment.

“Those things looking into the future are hard to tell,” Illinois coach Lovie Smith said about the likelihood of the Big Ten completing a season intact.

“I’m hoping we start with Week 1 first.”

The conference had predicted outbreaks and pitfalls when it initially announced in August it was postponing the season for safety reasons as most other Power Five conferences plowed ahead. The Big Ten reversed course less than 40 days later.

Now, they’ll join this societal experiment, trying to create normalcy amid a pandemic as cases surge in almost every state in the nation. In fact, the rate of COVID19 cases in Wisconsin has been above 20% this week.

“We concentrate on the things we can control,” Smith said. “We’re not going to be there in all of those places [throughout Wisconsin]. For us to be able to play the game Friday night, we’re going to have a clean field. Both programs will be that way. We’re not worried about a lot of those things. We’ve been tested every day. They’ve been tested every day. The football teams have been in a form of a bubble a little bit.”

But the question persists: Will it be enough?

The Big Ten has justified its return with its protocols that are stricter than other leagues, notably its daily antigen testing and follow-up PCR tests. The conference requires positive players and coaches to sit out 14 days, with players showing signs of myocarditis heart issues sitting out 21 days and using data from both population positivity rates and team daily reported positivity rate to determine whether a team can play.

Yet experts agree there’s no guarantee.

“I think it’s been an incredible effort by people at every institution to look at every angle,” said Dr. Jim Borchers, Ohio State team physician and Big Ten co-chair of the medical subcommittee. “They’ve been doing this since June. They’re doing everything they can do to make the environment as safe as they can, to mitigate risk as much as possible. It’s not a zero sum risk. We’ve been transparent about that. I’m sure there’s anxiety this week to make sure teams get there. My guess is there will be somewhat sense of relief when football get kicks off this weekend.”

Players will be spaced out from the 15-yard line to the 15-yard line. Meals will be grab-and-go style — something Notre Dame said it learned too late after an outbreak — rather than pregame bonding experiences.

Ohio State said it will fly to most games and is considering — for cost and safety — bussing to Michigan State and flying home.

No fans are permitted at Big Ten games to contain community spread.

But Illinois will host a watch party in the stadium for students, including an event of participating in the Block I tradition.