After plenty of debate and back-and-forth on safety and coronavirus-related issues, the Big Ten announced that it is postponing all fall sports seasons, including the 2020 football season.
That news, broken on Twitter by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, ends a lengthy debate over whether the conference would ahead with conference-only or limited schedules in the fall.
“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren in a statement. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall."
Originally the conference had hoped to play a 10-game football schedule for the 2020 season, with teams only taking on conference opponents, but over the last few days the conference has moved more toward a postponement of the fall season, with players instead taking to the field in the spring if things proceed according to plan.
Men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball are all impacted by the decision. Decisions on winter and spring sports will be made at a later date.
