The Big Ten was the first of the Power Five conferences to cancel football this fall, a move in early August that saw the Pac-12 follow just hours later.
It appeared that doomsday for college football in 2020 was upon us but then the ACC, Big 12 and SEC all didn’t follow suit like was expected.
Furthermore, Conference USA, the AAC and Sun Belt all stayed the course in the Group of Five, resulting in a total of 76 FBS teams as of today, scheduled to play football starting at some point in September.
The Big Ten has gotten some bad press and in my eyes, deservedly so for how quick they were to cancel things. Backlash came from star players, certain potions of the media, plenty of fans and a number of parents.
Now the 11-3 vote that led to the Big Ten canceling their 2020 fall season has been revealed by Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune.
“Sources told the Tribune that Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa dissented.”
So what Greenstein’s report tells me is that the Big Ten won’t be playing football this fall or winter, even just days after the latest rumors of the start to the season during Thanksgiving week.
Why is that?
Morton Schapiro is the Northwestern University President. More importantly, he’s the Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors.
After learning that Ohio State, Nebraska, and Iowa are the schools that voted to go-ahead with football this fall, we’re made aware that Schapiro voted not to.
Essentially sitting in the “power chair” of Presidents and Chancellors of the conference, he’s not seemingly going to be trying to sway others to change their minds to play.
Seeing as Northwestern has decided to keep freshmen and sophomores off campus until at least January, it’s hard to imagine Schapiro is any rush to try and talk his fellow Presidents into getting football played before the start of the new year.