What We Know About a Potential Big Ten Football Restart
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Written by Sammy Jacobs
While two Power Five conferences kicked off their seasons this weekend, there was smoke rising from the ashes of the hopes of a fall 2020 Big Ten Football season. The Big Ten postponed the season on August 11th by an 11-3 vote and has been marred in criticism since. Reports about meetings between the Big Ten’s Return to Competition Task Force with the Big Ten Steering committee which is made up of eight university presidents by Bruce Feldman on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff show on Saturday.
A vote was rumored to be on the docket for Sunday, but according to multiple reports from national outlets that vote did not occur, but could occur on Monday.
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic also tweeted “though the vote isn't happening tonight, there remains the expectation that this will be brought to a vote in the coming day or days.”
In an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jeff Potrykus Sunday afternoon it was reported that “nine votes will be needed to reverse the original decision, and Wisconsin is expected to vote yes this time.”
Also according Potrykus, it was said that, “people who spoke on the condition of anonymity reiterated that reliable, rapid testing has played a critical role and helped turn the tide in the favor of trying to play this year.”
It is unclear what a fall season would look like, but an October 17th start date has been targeted and “an Oct. 17 start would allow Big Ten teams to play eight games in a nine-week window, with a league title game on Dec. 19” Potrkus wrote.
This start date would potentially allow for the Big Ten to compete for the College Football Playoff, which is scheduled to be unveiled on Sunday, December 20th.
The situation is still very fluid and there have been lots of reporting of false news. Hoosier Huddle will be monitoring the current situations closely and provide an update when they become available.
9/14 UPDATE:
Bruce Feldman reported Sunday night that according to a source “all of the three Big Ten presentations--medical, scheduling and TV--went well today and there is a lot of optimism inside the conference from this weekend.”
9/15 UPDATE
Tuesday has been a day filled with hot mics, rumors and lots of tweets. Here is what we know happened as of 6:45pm September 15th:
University of Nebraska President Ted Carter was caught on a ‘hot mic’ saying “we're getting ready to announce the Huskers and Big Ten football tonight.” However, when asked about his comments later by Yousef Nasser of KLNK Turner said the comments were taken out of context
Pete Thamel, a national college football reporter for Yahoo! Sports tweeted, “No official word about a Big Ten restart has trickled down to Big Ten coaches. Many programs have been proceeding/planning the past few days for an Oct. 17 start, pending the upcoming vote/decision. There remains a lot of hope and optimism. But no official green light, yet.”
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic tweeted University of Wisconsin “Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the Big Ten decided to postpone its season due to issues with the availability of testing and contact tracing + the need to learn more about myocarditis.
“Once we have answers to those issues, we will try to plan a delayed season.”
Pat Fords of Sports Illustrated tweeted that “there is no indication there will be an official B1G announcement tonight.”
9/16 UPDATE
As of 9:00am this morning no official announcement from the Big Ten has been released. However, a report from Yahoo! Sports writer Pete Thamel says “sources: The Big Ten is coming back and will begin the weekend of Oct. 24. It'll include daily, rapid testing as a fixture of the plan. A statement from the league is imminent.”