The Big Ten continues to lead the way, and the Pac-12 is right there with it. But whether the other three Power 5 conferences will follow suit this time is a different story.
Following days of rumors and speculation, the Big Ten did Tuesday what many people anticipated: It postponed the 2020-21 fall sports season, which includes college football, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite obliviously passionate arguments from coaches and politicians.
The Pac-12 did the same later Tuesday afternoon, postponing all athletic competitions through the end of the year. The Big Ten is hoping for the possibility of spring football, while the Pac-12 said its focused on getting to 2021.
They’re decisions that would have been unthinkable a year ago, but a look around the United States as it’s ravaged by the novel coronavirus makes them obvious ones. And with two Power 5 conferences out for the fall, the remaining three can’t justify carrying on with football right now.
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The Big Ten was the first Power 5 conference to bow out of its fall schedule, which it previously amended and planned to begin September 5. In July, it also was the first major conference to switch to an all-conference football schedule, and it didn’t take long for the Pac-12 and the SEC to do the same. Currently, the ACC and Big 12 plan on playing a conference-only-plus-one schedule.
But the Big Ten postponing the season is more than just any domino in this scramble to make a plan weeks before trying to play. It’s a huge falling domino from the most profitable conference in the country, which brought in $780 million in revenue in 2019, USA TODAY Sports reported.
If the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided that football and other fall sports can’t take place as scheduled after relying on the medical advice of the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee and the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee, how could any other conference come to a different conclusion?
From a health standpoint, they probably can’t. From a competitive standpoint, they really can’t justify crowning a champion with, at a minimum, three major conferences while Group of Five conferences, including the MAC and Mountain West, are bailing on the fall too.
And that’s devastating for all involved, particularly the unpaid players, some of whom surely hoped they could use an elite performance this fall as a springboard toward higher NFL Draft stock. There are serious and real-world ramifications of postponement — or ultimately canceling the season if we reach that point.
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Death is obviously the most severe result of having COVID-19, but the longterm effects of the virus remain unknown and, as ESPN reported Monday, could include a heart condition linked to the virus. We have no idea how damaging this could be in the long run, and unpaid athletes’ health and well-being simply isn’t worth the now-increased risk for fatter paychecks and fans’ entertainment. And players in the Big Ten and Pac-12 said as much.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren recognized how significantly athletes’ futures will be impacted because of the postponement. But he also said in the conference’s statement:
“Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult.”
Oregon president Michael H. Schill said the “decision was guided by science and a deep commitment to the health and welfare of student-athletes.” More from the Pac-12 statement:
“Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “Our athletic programs are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant.”
We’re in the middle of a global pandemic, and the United States has more than five million cases and 162,000 deaths. The numbers are tragic and heartbreaking, and they continue to rise partly because some people are carrying on with their lives as if everything is fine.
And it sure seems like leaders in college football figured they could do the same.
Leaders in college football had months to craft a transparent plan for keeping players healthy and safe and providing them with as many options as possible for their futures. Clearly, that was asking far too much.
But now they have another cushion.
Maybe they can learn from the time they squandered and utilize the next several months to come up with a tangible idea for spring football. And if not, we’ll be in the same spot again just a few months later.
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