After all, the Big Ten can play football in 2020, but until Tuesday night, no resolution had been announced to restart the season.
Conference leaders are expected to pass an eight-game, nine-week schedule that could begin on October 17, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media reported Tuesday. That would put the Big Ten championship game on December 19, the day before. the planned opening of the school’s football playoff field. There is also the option for the season to begin on the weekend of October 24.
On Tuesday night, Michigan State President Samuel Stanley addressed members of the football program at a Zoom video conference, and although Stanley revealed no news about the start of the season, several others who participated in the call said Stanley hoped to provide an update soon.
When that’s exactly what remains to be seen.
A senior user at a Big Ten school told Free Press on Tuesday that it was unclear whether all 14 groups would play or whether some would withdraw from the season due to considerations about COVID-19 and other risks. Conference presidents and chancellors did not intend to announce a resolution to resume the season on Tuesday, according to Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated. The convention is expected to continue in unaisono.
“I’ll say we’ll all move together at Big Ten,” Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Monday at a conference call with reporters. “We’ll all play or not if we can. -School thing. “
Tuesday marked the chaotic day of the soap opera Big Ten.
On Tuesday morning, University of Nebraska President Ted Carter got stuck in front of a press convention in an open microphone through Lincoln KETV, saying the convention planned to announce that she would resume football later in the night.
“We’re going to announce Football Huskers and Big Ten tonight,” Carter told Bob Hinson, director of the National Institute of Strategic Research, in a masked video and audio conversation.
At the same time, through a video before a Senate subcommittee hearing on health, education, hard work, and pensions about NCAA name, symbol, and likeness regulations, Wisconsin Chancellor Blank has avoided questions about whether the Big Ten will take over football and fall sports.
“I won’t communicate about it. You’re going to have to let the Big Ten make this announcement when and if you take such a resolution,” he told Senator Tim Kaine, Virginia. “When such a resolution occurs, your first question deserves to be, “What has changed?”. . . I can’t say what the vote will be like. Decisions within the Big Ten are largely majority resolutions. But I’ll be honest, we almost did a consensus solve. Very rarely do we receive votes. “
All this came after Ohio state cardiologist Curt Daniels, co-author of an article on the link to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) in athletes who tested positive for COVID-19, told Columbus Dispatch of his studies with Buckeyes’ team-leading physician: Dr. James Borchers, had been misunderstood. In the exam published Friday, they reported that 4 of the 26 OSU athletes showed symptoms of myocarditis, but added that the test is still ongoing because it is an incredibly small sample.
“I think we have a way to play again,” Daniels told Dispatch. “I hope we find a way to do it. “
At the Senate subcommittee hearing, Blank referred to the initial science of myocarditis by explaining why the ten major fall sports delayed indefinitely in August.
“There were several important reasons for this, ” replied Blank. ” First of all, we weren’t sure we could just do the testing and contract tracking we needed to keep athletes safe. Second, heart-related myocarditis tests are being developed. , and this dubious evidence and what it meant unclear. And we’re looking to know more.
“There were some other minor reasons. But until we have answers to that, we’ll postpone our season. Once we have answers to that and some of those disorders and things we’ll have the means to solve them effectively, check to plan for a delayed season.
And yet, as the surreal moments of the morning and early afternoon faded, no official announcement of the Big Ten arrived. And the convention went into the night in the same position it had been in for over a month.
In limbo.
Discussions about a possible resumption of football occur when several Big Ten universities, adding the state of Michigan and Michigan, face COVID-19 and similar problems on their campuses. Students living in East Lansing were ordered to remain quarantined for 14 days due to an increasing number of off-campus cases, and graduate academics and the broker were on strike in Ann Arbor.
But football has a huge optical challenge for presidents, as other leagues started across the country and Big Ten parents, players and coaches filed a complaint in Nebraska and protested around the conference, with new commissioner Kevin Warren as a focal point for enthusiasts and politicians. frustrationArray in President Donald Trump’s tweets.
Although it was the presidents and chancellors who voted 11-3 to delay fall sports, Warren, not even a year after succeeding Jim Delany in retirement, struggled with a friendly interview about shots on the Big Ten Network the day the league decided. Their lack of clarity and lack of transparency on the part of decision makers, along with a detailed 23-page Pac-12 reasoning as to why he chose to delay the season, have turned Big Ten into a punching bag for parents, coaches and politicians. lawyers and other conferences.
Athletes were able to return to campus in mid-June for voluntary education sessions, MSU was one of the systems that had to go through 14-day quarantines due to COVID-19 outbreaks. On August 5, an organization of more than 1,000 Big Ten athletes issued a declaration of unity to empower college athletes to combat injustices in their sports communities. Institutions.
MSU and UM opened the preseason two days later, however, the August 8 Big Ten prevented groups from extending their practices to complete pads, restricting players to shorts, T-shirts and helmets and minimizing contact. , on 11 August, the convention announced a resolution to postpone.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress. com. Follow him on Twitter at chrissolari. Learn about Michigan Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.