UPDATE (3PM ET): It’s official. The Big Ten canceled the fall sports calendar, announced the convention Tuesday afternoon.
“The physical and intellectual fitness and well-being of our student-athletes has been at the center of all the decisions we have made regarding the ability to advance,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “Over time and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it has become very transparent that there is too much uncertainty about potential medical hazards to allow have our student-athletes participate in this competition. “
He said the convention would possibly try to play fall sports in the spring.
UPDATE 2 (3:50 p. m. ET): The Pac 12 will also be canceling its fall season, according to reports.
ORIGINAL STORY: The 2020 school football season, at least as far as the school football season is concerned, appears to be on the ropes after a huge domino fell on Tuesday.
The Big Ten, in a move that has been reported or predicted through various other people this week, is expected to cancel the 2020 season, Yahoo’s Pete Thamel reported Tuesday, citing sources. Thamel’s plan for the convention right now is to get out there and play in the spring.
– Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 11, 2020
Playing football at school, and all school sports was actually going to be one of the toughest obstacles for world sport to succeed as the COVID-19 pandemic breaks loose in the United States. If players cannot be paid (legally), they cannot be endangered for sports. This becomes even more true when you consider how many schools across the country will take distance education to start the school year. Even college athletics can’t justify the presence of athletes on campus while the rest of the school does distance training.
We are now waiting to see if more Power Five meetings follow. It turns out that big football meetings like the SEC are powering the season, and the same can be said for the Big 12.
– Steven N. Godfrey Jr. (38 Godfrey) August 11, 2020
Thamel said this about the CCA’s efforts to have a season.
– Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 11, 2020