It’s not quite official, but it looks like Big Ten football is on its way back. After postponing fall sports — including football — back on August 11, there have been several enhancements with testing and tracing now available that were not before.
The Big Ten Medical Subcommittee presented these new avenues on Saturday, and it appears to have given the Big Ten’s Steering Committee the comfortability needed to safely put student-athletes back on the field.
The news was first reported by Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who spoke to sources familiar with the situation. The belief is that there’s confidence now that the Big Ten’s Presidents and Chancellors will approve the official vote, with the intention and target of starting the season on October 17. There must be an affirmative vote by at least nine members to pass.
The original vote by the same group resulted in postponing the season by a reported 11-3 margin. At that time there was too much concern over where the COVID-19 pandemic stood and the risk that it posed to the student-athletes in the conference.
Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska were the only three members who voted to move forward with a fall season originally.
Is the Big Ten rising from the dead? https://t.co/yMAjMu20Yo
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) September 13, 2020
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So what’s the timing of all of this? According to Jeff Potrykus, the plan could be approved either Sunday or Monday after the 14 Conference Presidents and Chancellors are briefed. And at this point, timing is of the essence if the league wants to be a part of the College Football Playoff.
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