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Report: Big Ten cancels football season

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The Big Ten has voted to cancel the 2020 college football season in a historic move that stems from concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, multiple people with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the Free Press.

The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the decision. A formal announcement is expected to Tuesday, the sources said.

The presidents voted, 12-2, Sunday to end the fall sports in the conference. Michigan and Michigan State — which both has physicians as presidents — voted to end the season, sources said. Only Nebraska and Iowa voted to play, Dan Patrick said on his radio show Monday.

The move comes two days after the Mid-American Conference became the first in the FBS to cancel ts season, and sources told the Free Press the Big Ten is trying to coordinate its announcement with other Power Five conferences.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:03 am

Comments

At least the Illini will be undefeated

Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:05 am
Wisdom prevails.

Comment by H-W Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:06 am
And Lovie gets another year to win, so we have that going for us.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:11 am
Let’s not forget;

Wimbledon? Canceled
Oktoberfest? Canceled

Those two events in England and Germany are staples to culture, and they are handling the virus “better” than the United Stares.

Tour de France, French (tennis) Open? Rescheduled

France sees things differently, and yet as they rescheduled, the French are doing “better” than the United States.

Why should America have college sports?

As was stated better than I ever could, sports are a reward for a functioning society. We can’t agree to wear masks. That’s not functioning during a global pandemic.

We, the United States, are the worst at handling this global pandemic and we “deserve” sports?

Nope.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:11 am
Is ok, all those folks protesting to reopen this spring and summer didn’t like watching college football anyway.

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:20 am
fear of lawsuits. now if they will cut their salaries…..

Comment by Amalia Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:22 am
Liability > athletics

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:25 am
The problem with college football is that none of the conferences or the NCAA had an actual plan to handle COVID. Now, will they come up with a plan moving forward? Spring ball, or just cancel the entire school year of sports?

Comment by Really? Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:26 am
What a big hit to university finances.

Comment by Huh? Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:26 am
Unfortunate that we won’t have college football this Fall. I’ll note that after a COVID shutdown in the Spring, professional soccer in Europe is wrapping up its season now, with some modifications (no fans in stadiums) and only a few minor blips. Clearly most European countries have been able to do a better job of dealing with COVID than the U.S., so it stands to reason that they’ve been able to get some of their professional sporting events back on track.

Comment by Phil Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:27 am
Wimbledon was cancelled so quickly because they take out pandemic insurance. They collected $141M.

Comment by Jose Abreu's Next Homer Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:31 am
Sports in the US is a pretty good case study in what works and what leaves gaps.

(NHL/NBA) Bubble - test, test, test on the way in and then totally limit interactions and keep players and staff isolated means very few to even NO new cases.

(MLB) Asking people to be responsible - community spread, continued transmission and outbreaks.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:32 am
OW: == We, the United States, are the worst at handling this global pandemic and we “deserve” sports? ==

Because Americans think we are somehow magically special and rules don’t apply to us.

Comment by Homebody Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:35 am
===Wimbledon was cancelled so quickly because they take out pandemic insurance. They collected $141M.===

Smart on their part. The liability to host versus the insurance to use, no brainer.

Plus, the fans at Centre Court is the Wimbledon experience, not an empty Centre Court with a dozen people playing tennis.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:36 am
The British Open also takes out pandemic insurance. Sure, they could golf but they got paid out so they won’t which is fine.

Comment by Jose Abreu's Next Homer Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:40 am
About 3 weeks before I thought they would, but a month after they should have. And now if only the universities would recognize the responsibility they have to students and their host cities and cancel in-person learning.

Comment by Simple Simon Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:44 am
=The British Open also takes out pandemic insurance.=

Countries that acknowledge the possibility of a pandemic and take steps to mitigate that risk will always be better prepared to respond when the event happens. We still have a number of people arguing that the pandemic is overblown and the need to wear masks and socially distant robs them of their liberty. Sadly this minority of individuals is dragging the rest of us down, but they represent an important voting block so our politicians allow it to occur and often encourage it.

Comment by Pundent Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:46 am
What the NBA and NHL have shown us is if you want to avoid the consequences of Covid, you have to do something that’s dramatically different in order to have sports. The Big Ten is not in a position to do so nor will the other conferences. We have to adapt to the virus as the virus won’t adapt to us. It cares no more about football than it does about bars and churches.

Comment by Pundent Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 11:57 am
@Cool Papa Bell

The NHL made the sensible decision to bubble entirely in Canada.

Comment by Hamlet's Ghost Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 12:01 pm
Thought the Power 5 conferences was trying to issue a joint statement (i.e., cancellation) so it would look like they are unified in their position.

Comment by bogey golfer Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 12:11 pm
=now If they will cut their salaries=. Kirk Ferenz, the Univ of Iowa coach is the highest paid state worker in Iowa. His strength coach for the team was fired recently, and was paid over $800k. Maybe the shutdown will cause higher education to reevaluate their priorities.

Comment by Top of the State Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 12:27 pm
My comment a week or so ago was “sure, go ahead and “schedule” a season, would not mean that there would be one”. The plans for in-person school will go the same way, I predict

Comment by Groundhog Day Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 12:35 pm
No one wants the legacy of their program or of their career to be the death of the athletes they coach. Several high profile lawsuits have demonstrated that the Public expects a University to be accountable for the decisions of their employees, whether they are football coaches or not and that the Public is not kind or generous to bad excuses when the facts were directly in front of decision makers and then purposefully ignored.

I hope others follow their lead.

Still plenty of time to recruit an E-Sports Team and explore the legal ramifications of whethe

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:03 pm
Woopsies!

The legal ramifications of whether or not Twitch streaming would violate the NCAA’s long standing rules about amateurism.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:05 pm
@Top of the State, I guess that’s why Iowa (and Nebraska) were the 2 no votes on ending the football season. Kirk Ferentz and his pink locker room should be paid less.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:08 pm
NFL already cancelled preseason games, MLB starting to see the schedule nightmare when teams get hit with COVID. Sports will be placed on hold once again as COVID spins out of control and some athletes are left with life long health issues

Comment by truthteller Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:14 pm
Perspective?

A school not having major athletics, including football and the boon of the millions the school and the town gets for events, even *if* all the games have ZERO fans.

A school having sports, including football, with no fans, and one athlete passes away for that school to play a rivalry game.

Sometimes it’s about protecting others (the universities) from themselves.

This time, B1G realized no athlete’s life is worth an invitation to the Alamo Bowl.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:19 pm
“and one athlete passes away for that school to play a rivalry game.”

Just out of curiosity, do you think the same standards should apply for schools doing in person instruction vs. online instruction?

College football players are a pretty small number so statistically speaking, unlikely one of them dies.

The chances of one college student getting COVID this fall and dying has to be pretty high. No doubt some have underlying health conditions, the numbers are in the millions, etc.

As to legacy, ND is doing fine after killing a cameraman a few years ago. Northwestern has had their strongest run of football since allowing a player to die in practice.

Comment by Perspective? Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 1:34 pm
It will be interesting to see if any of the other Power 5 follow suit. Right now, I’d bet on the SEC trying to play. Pac10 (or whatever it is these days) probably not. ACC? Maybe, because of Clemson and Notre Dame, but they’ve also got Duke, N. Car. and other modestly sensible programs. Big 12? No idea; I suspect Texas would play even if they had to do 7-on-7 as bodies littered the field.

Comment by jdcolombo Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 2:07 pm
This is a dangerous precedent. What happens if we find out that universities can actually exist without football?

Comment by filmmaker prof Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 2:33 pm
Look like Nebraska and OSU not ready to give up fall football…

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29634231/scott-frost-says-nebraska-prepared-look-all-options-including-playing-big-ten

Comment by illdoc Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 3:22 pm
Big hit to university finances?
Total $$ hit to the University of Illinois from canceling football: $0
Total $$ revenue to football program from mandatory student fees even though the season is cancelled: $3 million.

Comment by filmmaker prof Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 4:28 pm
=== Total $$ hit to the University of Illinois from canceling football: $0
Total $$ revenue to football program from mandatory student fees even though the season is cancelled: $3 million.===

If you can’t see the economic impact on universities and power 5 football… willfully ignorant… blissfully unaware.

Yikes, man…

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 4:31 pm
As more conferences move to cancelling seasons others will be compelled to do so. I’ve yet to hear of a college program suggest that they can even close to what MLB is trying. And that appears to be the minimal, and least effective, of major sports. There’s just no way to limit the spread among student athletes and frankly students for that matter. The outbreaks earlier this summer at Clemson and LSU told us all we needed to know.

Comment by Pundent Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 5:20 pm
I’d prefer giving it the old college try, but understand that arguing taking risks is considered irresponsible. Big Ten would probably shut down anyway when any one athlete tests positive.

Comment by HighSox Monday, Aug 10, 20 @ 8:49 pm