The momentum to play football sometime in the fall for Big Ten programs seems to be gaining steam. Last week, reports surfaced that the conference was now looking at a plan to being play Thanksgiving weekend. That was after most believed that a winter season was the preferred timeline. And that, was after an initial spring start to the season was communicated.
In other words, it’s a fluid situation. Very fluid indeed. Especially as pressure mounts on the conference with sharp criticism from every corner of the Milky Way Galaxy it seems (Planet Mars is on the phone Mr. Warren).
But on Tuesday, we heard from someone of significant substance when OSU President Kristina Johnson provided some insight to NBC4 in Columbus. When asked about the prospects of playing football in the fall, Jonson seemed optimistic.
“We’ve learned about how we can have what’s called a clean field,” Johnson told NBC4. Players on the field that are negative, that can play, that we can be playing football — and we’re working through that process. We’re working with the Big Ten, we’re working with the commissioner to try and get in place those medical protocols where we can keep our students safe. And that’s really what it comes down to. We want to make sure that our athletes get a shot because they’ve worked really hard. And they deserve a shot to play. At the same time, we want to make sure that they’re safe. So we’re doing our work. We’ll come back, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll be playing football this fall.”
OSU President: There’s a path to football in the fall https://t.co/SfarvV7lPG
— NBC4 Columbus (@nbc4i) September 1, 2020
Wait, what? That’s right, the president of one of the major programs in the country is very hopeful about what’s happening behind the scenes in the conference and believes there could be football in the heartland in the fall.
However, of note is that Johnson did elaborate a bit and remind everyone that fall is a very long season and may not be what everyone is thinking about.
“Fall is a long period of time,” Johnson continued. “Fall goes until December 20th. I see that there’s a path to football. People talk about winter, early spring, late fall, winter, those things are all being worked out. Again, I come back to our campuses need to be safe, and that means in the performances as well as in the classrooms. We’re working very hard to do that. And if we all do our part — wear a mask, stay six feet apart, wash our hands, then I think that we’ve got the procedures in place to go forward.”
Speaking of going forward, Johnson was asked bout the next steps. Most specifically, what kind of timeframe she expects a decision to be made.
“There’s a medical committee, there’s a scheduling committee, and these committees are working very diligently every day about how to put in place those protocols that will keep it safe,” Johnson said. “So as soon as possible. It’s certainly something that we’ll be watching with the commissioner, and integrating obviously our views and those of our colleagues.”
So, like everything else we’ve been saying — stay tuned because it appears as though things are really moving forward, and that’s better than where we were just a couple of weeks ago.