The Big Ten announced this morning that it is extending the suspension of organized team activities through June 1 and will re-evaluate the situation at that time.
This news comes with no surprise as many states around the country remain on a stay-at-home order and have yet to allow the opening of their economies.
It also doesn’t have much effect on the likelihood of a football season in the fall, as given the current state of the country it was never likely that summer programs and preseason camps would be able to occur.
In terms of the football teams in the conference, this news continues to point towards an entirely-online preseason preparation period and at least 1.5 months until players will be able to take the field and practice in any capacity.
Were this to stay true and the season were to only consist of in-conference matchups, as is being projected, the football teams will lose a valuable out-of-conference opportunity to gain experience and prepare for their conference schedules.
For teams like Michigan State with a new quarterback and new head coach, Iowa with a new quarterback and Michigan with a new quarterback the lack of those out-of-conference games could prove costly as those teams will be behind the eight ball in terms of readiness for their conference matchups.
The Big Ten will decide again come June 1 about the likelihood of fall athletics and, if they are able to occur, when team activities will be allowed to begin.