The first big domino has fallen in college football on Tuesday. According to various reports, the first of the Power Five Conference has cancelled their 2020 fall season. That conference is the Big Ten and the elephant in the room of college sports in the fall is of course, football.
Sources: Big Ten is announcing that the fall is cancelled. League will attempt to play in the spring.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 11, 2020
“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,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said via statement.
Along with the Big Ten, the Pac-12 is expect to also expect to cancel their fall season on Tuesday, Stadium reports. With the Big Ten not playing and the Pac-12 to follow, these conferences will now turn their attention to the spring season and see if a schedule can be salvaged then. It’s unclear how many athletes aiming for the NFL in 2021 may skip such a later season, though.
Two other non-Power Five conferences, the Mountain West and Mid-American conferences already had cancelled their seasons. It remains to be seen what other big-time leagues, such as the SEC, plan to do in the fall. NFL news on Monday indicated that if college football conferences began pulling the plug on playing in the fall, the NFL may consider moving games to Saturdays to take up the time slot.
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