Before we get into this, I want to make it abundantly clear that nobody in the media seems to know what’s going on any longer with Big Ten football’s potential return to play. Originally it was a locked-in proposition that nothing was going to happen until the spring.
Then, all the protests, letters, and criticism hit the proverbial fan up by Lake Michigan and we started hearing what seemed like very good sourced reports that we could see the conference try to get its act together sometime in the fall. Thanksgiving weekend was the first target date, then we started hearing things about October dates.
Some of those reports have come from NBC Sports radio host Dan Patrick. He seems to have a very good inside source to what’s going on in the conference and has been providing updates along the way. He has cautioned though that it is a very fluid situation.
Last week, Patrick expressed optimism that the Big Ten would get back on the football field in early October. But according to his latest report today using the same source, there is much less optimistic abounding.
Patrick said that there are several teams in the conference and many within the medical community therein that are balking at playing in the fall.
“There’s still a push back from the medical community in the Big Ten to not play,” said Patrick on his radio show. “I was told they simply don’t have enough teams to play. I was told that the Michigan teams — not going to play, Illinois teams, that’s Illinois and Northwestern — not going to play, Maryland’s not going to play, and Rutgers probably won’t play. That doesn’t leave you with much if you’re able to pull this off.”
Patrick goes on to say that the medical experts are now pushing back closer to the Thanksgiving date and not the October 10 date that was reported last week.
“And now, I’m told the medical community in the Big Ten is trying to push to November now,” continued Patrick. “It was October 10, that was the target date so they could get in a ten-game schedule and qualify for the postseason. I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
Big Ten Football Update: "They simply don't have enough teams to play. I was told The Michigan teams not going to play, Illinois teams Illinois/Northwestern not going to play, Maryland's not going to play and Rutgers probably won't play." pic.twitter.com/DP0QKIUYT8
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 8, 2020
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So, where optimism was out there for many last week that the Big Ten would reverse course, Patrick says that has now given way to the opposite.
“I was told that January is a legitimate landing date for the Big Ten,” Patrick said. “Like, that can still happen, just that isn’t anywhere near the consensus. And I don’t think you can get enough teams that are going to be able to pull this together to be able to play fall football. And I was a little more optimistic a week ago… There are polar opposites in viewing this in the Big Ten.”
Well now. That doesn’t sound encouraging at all. We must remember that just like there was extreme optimism that went by without resolution last week, the same could be said on the flip side. It doesn’t sound good, but with any situation that is in flux, we’ll just have to wait and see.
However, we are running out of time for anything to happen in the fall. That we do know. Or so we think.
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