Big Ten approves plan for 2020 football season this fall, starting in October
The Big Ten is back in business.
Or, at least the conference will attempt to start its 2020 football season in October, according to a press release issued by the conference on Wednesday morning.
The Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors voted unanimously to resume the season after adopting significant medical protocols, including daily antigen testing, enhanced cardiac screening and an enhanced data-driven approach when making decisions about practice and competition.
The Big Ten will require athletes, coaches, trainers and other individuals who are on the field for all practices and games to undergo daily antigen testing. Test results must be completed and recorded prior to each practice or game.
Athletes who test positive for the coronavirus through point of contact (POC) daily testing would require a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to confirm the result of the POC test.
Daily testing doesn’t begin until Sept. 30.
The Council reversed a decision it made on Aug. 11 — by an 11-3 vote — to postpone the league’s fall sports season, including football, over safety fears in negotiating the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Games are scheduled to begin the weekend of Oct. 23-24. The conference is looking at an eight-game regular-season schedule — with no open weeks — and holding the league’s championship game on Dec. 19. Each team will play a ninth game against the corresponding finisher from the other division (2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, etc.).
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said the schedule will be released later this week.
Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said the Big Ten has decided it won’t sell tickets to the general public. The league is looking at accommodating family members.
Finishing on Dec. 19 allows a Big Ten team to possibly qualify for the College Football Playoff.
The Big Ten needed at least nine votes among the 14 presidents and chancellors to approve playing this season but received unanimous support, according to the press release.
Purdue President Mitch Daniels voted to postpone in August, saying “the unique health risks to athletes, especially in collision sports, as well as the risk for coach and support staff, were too uncertain to proceed in good conscience,” in a Sept. 1 statement provided to the Journal & Courier.
Indiana University Athletics Director Scott Dolson declared it “an exciting day,” in response to Wednesday’s announcement.
“From the outset, we have relied on and followed the guidance of our expert medical professionals in determining when it was safe to resume football competitions,’’ Dolson said in a statement. “I am very confident in their recommendations, and appreciate their dedication to keeping our students, coaches, fans and communities safe.’’
There have been advancements since August, which allow for a shift in course. A week and a half ago, the Pac-12 announced a partnership with Quidel Corporation to implement daily testing for all close-contact sports. The Pac-12’s commissioner, Larry Scott, has said it would be “preferred but not necessary” to align his conference’s fall sport seasons with the Big Ten conference.
As part of the new protocols, each institution will designate a Chief Infection Officer (CInO) who will oversee the collection and reporting of data for the Big Ten. Team test positivity rate and population positivity rate thresholds will be used to determine recommendations for continuing practice and competition.
All COVID-19 positive athletes will have to undergo comprehensive cardiac testing to include labs and biomarkers, ECG, Echocardiogram and a Cardiac MRI. Following a cardiac evaluation, student-athletes must receive clearance from a cardiologist designated by the university for the primary purpose of cardiac clearance for COVID-19 positive athletes. The earliest an athlete can return to game competition is 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis.
Over the weekend, eight presidents and chancellors heard a presentation from the league’s medical committee of the return to competition task force. The medical committee made a formal presentation to the entire group of presidents and chancellors on Sunday.
The change of direction caps a month where the Big Ten was viewed as dysfunctional, a national embarrassment and lacked the togetherness that’s always been considered a strength of the league.
First-year commissioner Kevin Warren, who started in January after replacing Jim Delany, received a bulk of the criticism for his lack of transparency over the reasons why the league postponed in August, six days after releasing a modified conference-only 2020 schedule.
Warren even said the decision to postpone “will not be revisited” in an open letter to the Big Ten community on Aug. 19.
Parents groups from Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska and Iowa wrote letters and held press conferences demanding answers and even head coaches — Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Penn State’s James Franklin — openly lobbied for the conference to start its season.
Even Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields started a petition to ask the league to change its decision, but no one from the Big Ten responded. Eight Nebraska football players sued the Big Ten seeking to change the decision and Warren even spoke with President Donald Trump about the Big Ten.
The Big Ten’s decision comes as teams from the Atlantic Coast, Big 12 and smaller conferences are preparing for the third week of the season. Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State, Iowa State and Texas were in action last weekend and most games were played before limited crowds or no fans at all.
Can the league make it through a season, even if it’s limited to eight games? Already, several schools across the country have been forced to postpone due to numerous COVID-19 positive tests.
One Big Ten school — Wisconsin — has paused football workouts and Michigan State has asked its students to quarantine after more than 300 tested positive. Maryland returned to holding football workouts late last week
