It’s been a long time coming, but according to a report from Adam Rittenberg and Heather Dinich of ESPN, a Big Ten medical subcommittee is set to present new testing available to Presidents and Chancellors on Saturday for a potential return to football in the fall.
The Big Ten’s subcommittee is comprised of medical experts and athletic directors and has been charged with coming up with a new plan for testing and safety measures to allow for a safe return to play, whenever that may be.
According to the report, the testing available now includes options that were not on the table when the decision was made to postpone the season just five weeks ago. Those options reportedly include at least four rapid response antigen tests now on the market that could allow teams to test daily and significantly decrease the amount of necessary contact tracing.
“It’s light years different than it was five weeks ago,” one conference source told ESPN.
If the subcommittee of Presidents and Chancellors like what they see on Saturday, they can then reconvene the entire group for a formal vote that could then set things in motion towards planning schedules and a start date. However, things could be sent back for more work which would likely kill any chance at kicking things off in October and push things down the road even further.
Story from @CFBHeather and me: Big Ten medical subcommittee to present options for possible return of football in fall – via @ESPN App https://t.co/SJx6XqIZBs
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) September 11, 2020
[lawrence-related id=36856]
[lawrence-related id=36835]
The timing of the season reportedly sits somewhere from mid to late October at this point if all the new testing protocols are approved. If that happens, it’ll be very interesting to see where that fits in the landscape of any potential College Football Playoff.
So, onward and upward we go. We will hopefully hear something come out from the conference on Saturday and we’ll then get a better sense of where all of this stands for real.
Or not. Stay tuned.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.