Tag: COVID-9

Big Ten to allow fans at sporting events once again, effective immediately

The Big Ten will allow fans to attend sporting events once again, at the discretion of local authorities and health restrictions.

It may not feel like it, but maybe we are rounding the corner with this global pandemic. Once COVID-19 hit, sporting events and businesses were shuttered and we wondered when life might start to get back to normal.

There’s still a long way to go, but we’ve slowly begun to see sporting events allow fans back at venues in a responsible and socially distanced manner. And now, the conference that seemed to be the most conservative of all the major conferences in collegiate sports, the Big Ten, has announced that its member institutions can begin welcoming fans back again.

“Attendance policies for all remaining 2020-21 Big Ten Conference regular-season competitions will follow local health guidelines and restrictions,” the conference announced on Wednesday. “The decision to follow local health guidelines and restrictions was made jointly by the Big Ten Conference Directors of Athletics and the Council of Presidents and Chancellors in consultation with university medical experts and the conference office. This policy update is effective immediately and includes spring football events.”

Well then. This follows the conference’s move to allow fans at the Big Ten Basketball Tournament in Lucas Oil Stadium just a couple of weeks ago and furthers the move towards being able to get closer to a more regularly attended season for college events in the future and beyond.

Shortly after the news broke, Ohio State itself issued a statement.

“In response to the Big Ten Conference announcement today regarding attendance policies at home athletics events for its member schools, the Ohio State Department of Athletics will work internally and with Columbus Public Health to formalize appropriate attendance figures, mapping and social distancing within our athletics venues and facilities,” read the statement. “Once we have determined the attendance in our venues, beyond the current protocols of only family members of student-athletes and coaches, we will share that information. We do not anticipate any changes in our attendance policies before this weekend’s athletic events on campus.”

It all seems like things are headed in the right direction. Hopefully, with more and more people getting vaccinated, the cases of COVI-19 will only trend downward and we’ll all get to see a packed Horseshoe this fall. In fact, we still don’t know what this means for the annual spring game, but we’ll stay close to any updates. Previously, athletic director Gene Smith said the university did not plan on selling tickets. We’ll see if that changes at all in some capacity.

Either way, this is very welcome news.

Ohio State receives FOIA letter from well-known attorney and player advocate Tom Mars

Ohio State confirmed receipt of a letter from attorney Tom Mars requesting details around the Big Ten’s decision to postpone fall football.

It has been widely reported that several Freedom of Information Act Letters (FOIA) went out to Big Ten institutions requesting information and communications surrounding the league’s decision to postpone the fall football season. Those letters were drafted by well-known attorney and player advocate Tom Mars’ office and reportedly went to all thirteen public Big Ten members. Northwestern was excluded because they are not subject to open records law.

Buckeyes Wire has spoken to Mars and received confirmation that a letter was sent to Ohio State as a part of the effort for more transparency surrounding the decision and what types of communications went into such a monumental decision that affected so many.

“I can confirm that I’ve sent comprehensive FOIA requests to all Big 10 public universities (13) per rights afforded by the public records laws in eleven different states,” confirmed Mars in an email to Buckeyes Wire.

In response, a spokesman for Ohio State has confirmed the university received the letter from Mars’ office last Saturday. OSU also acknowledged receipt of the communication to Mars and is says it is working on a reply through email.

Buckeyes Wire is also in possession of the FOIA letter request that can be found in the below attachment.

Ohio State FOIA Request

The request is broad and detailed and is looking for all manners of communication that would have occurred between athletic director Gene Smith and president-elect Kristina Johnson with Big Ten representatives.

Under Ohio Open Records Law, OSU’s response falls under a rather ambiguous “reasonable period of time,” meaning it could be longer than other Big Ten schools and states that have a specific timeframe assigned their applicable legislation.

We’ll have much more on the status of all of this over the next few days.

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