Ohio State will be out for football this fall, chief executive Gene Smith said Wednesday night.
Early Wednesday, in a conference call with reporters, OSU coach Ryan Day presented the game concept in all likelihood at other Big Ten schools that would have wanted to postpone the 2020 season of the convention’s cancellation on Tuesday.
Jim Harbaugh of Michigan, Scott Frost of Nebraska and James Franklin of Penn State were among the coaches who expressed sadness at the Big Ten decision.
“It’s a fluid situation,” Day said Wednesday afternoon. “We’re exploring all those options.”
But hours later, Smith sprayed it after consulting the Big Ten.
“The state of Ohio continued its communication with the Big Ten Conference regarding a situation where we still play fall football games, yet we decided that this would not be a permissible opportunity for us to move forward. We try 100 percent health, protection and good educational fortune of our student-athletes and work with the Big Ten to expand a spring plan for our sports as temporarily as possible.
Day said he was looking for a “spring” season that began in early January to create enough gap between this season and the normal 2021 season.