Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said that it would take a ‘miracle’ for the Big Ten to begin a football season next month.
Everyone is on pins and needles in and around Big Ten country today expecting to hear some news on a rumored re-vote to perhaps reverse course on postponing the fall college football season. However, like the rest of this saga, it appears not everyone has gotten the memo and are clearly not on the same page, chapter, book, or even library.
The latest news comes from Iowa City where Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Thursday that it would take a pretty significant event for the conference to decide to play football next month. And by significant, the exact words of ‘miracle’ were used.
Yes, apparently we need a priest or Jesus himself to come back to turn around the fortunes of the Big Ten fall season. Maybe he could walk across Lake Michigan and turn Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren’s tears into a fine wine.
“If a miracle was handed to us today and said, ‘If you take this vaccine, you won’t get COVID,’ yeah, I suppose you could come up with a scenario where you could play in October,” Barta told reporters. “I don’t know between that miracle and where we are right now, whether or not we could get that done. I’ll wait and see what the medical group comes back with and then it will ultimately be up to the college presidents to evaluate that.”
Okay, well, that’s a different story of optimism that we’ve seen in other locations, but I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone. What has become abundantly clear is that seemingly nobody knows where the Big Ten stands on all of this as the target and communication protocols keeps moving.
You have to also keep in mind that the novel coronavirus isn’t exactly fading in Iowa. The athletic department recently announced a pause on athletic events because recent testing revealed 93 positive COVID-19 cases.
In other words, there’s still a ways to go before Barta feels comfortable with where things stand. Even if other schools are having more success with testing results and monitoring at this point.
“I feel better today than I did maybe a month ago, but I know we’re not there yet,” Barta said about a return to play in the Big Ten. “Until I hear something that I know is going to convince the ADs and the presidents that we can go forward, I won’t say too much until I see it.”
[lawrence-related id=36542]
[lawrence-related id=36535]
And in another shock, if there is a vote Friday, as has been rumored by multiple outlets, Barta must not have gotten the memo before it got shredded. He said that he is not aware of any vote taking place.
So here we are still again. There appears to be movement going on behind the scenes, but unless you are the select few rowing the boat towards whichever far away shore the Big Ten’s decision making current is in, we’ll all just have to stand back and wait for a flare to be shot up into the air.
[vertical-gallery id=35983]
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.
