Over the past several days there has been an uneasy feeling about the possibility of a cancelled 2020 college football season. The NCAA President Mark Emmert recently spoke about the path forward being a rough one. Even CBS Sports writer Dennis Dodd spoke with two anonymous athletic directors that believed it was inevitable.
On Sunday afternoon however, the report that many didn’t want to hear began to make its way to twitter. Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger tweeted out that the Big Ten Conference was set to cancel football for the 2021 season. Again it isn’t surprising but nothing something that one wants to hear.
College football sources tell @SInow that the Big Ten is moving toward a decision to cancel the 2020 fall season, while engaging other Power 5 conferences on a uniform decision to be announced later this week. https://t.co/vT1JIQYHrC
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 9, 2020
Shortly afater that report surfaced, Clemson’s quarterback Trevor Lawrence took to Twitter to plead for the opportunity to play. Many athletes have voiced their opinions with hashtag Let Us Play. Here is what Lawrence had to say about it.
People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play. Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid19 (1)
Not to mention the players coming from situations that are not good for them/ their future and having to go back to that. Football is a safe haven for so many people. We are more likely to get the virus in everyday life than playing football. Having a season also incentivizes
Players being safe and taking all of the right precautions to try to avoid contracting covid because the season/ teammates safety is on the line. Without the season, as we’ve seen already, people will not social distance or wear masks and take the proper precautions
The former National Championship winning quarterback makes a sound argument for not only his teammates but for players across the nation. While you can argue it could be safer for athletes if they don’t subject themselves to contraction by playing. The players seem to want to play. They don’t feel that they are safer by not playing. You can be the judge on being for or against it. As for the Big 12 Conference, they are set to meet on Monday at 5 p.m. according to Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
I'm told the Big 12 board of directors is planning to meet at 5 p.m. tomorrow with its medical experts on the upcoming football season.
— Drew Davison (@drewdavison) August 9, 2020
Nothing has been made official yet but it is quite possible come 6 p.m. on Monday that we will have some finality to this situation. Whether or not the Big 12 follows the Big Ten or they attempt to play on their own.