MADISON, Wis. – Since its inception in 1896, the Big Ten conference has played through world wars, civil and political unrest and domestic attacks. It finally met its match.
The league has voted to cancel the 2020 college football season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, multiple people with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the Detroit Free Press. A formal announcement is expected Tuesday.
The Big Ten presidents voted, 12-2, Sunday to end the fall sports in the conference. Michigan and Michigan State — which both has physicians as presidents — voted to end the season. Only Nebraska and Iowa voted to play, Dan Patrick said on his radio show Monday.
Shortly after the Free Press' report, a Big Ten spokesman told Yahoo Sports that "no vote" has been held by Big Ten presidents and chancellors.
SI.com's Ross Dellenger has reported that the Pac-12 is close to follow shortly thereafter with the postponement of their football season to the spring.
The move toward halting the season is a sudden about face for the league, as many of its schools had just begun or were about to start fall preseason practices (Wisconsin was expected to start Monday). The league unveiled a 10-game conference-only football schedule Wednesday, along with detailed protocols for COVID-19 testing that was among the strictest in sports.
Since then, the Mid-American Conference announced it was postponing its fall season, citing health and safety concerns for athletics. The Big Ten additionally announced that preseason practices would remain in helmets only until further notice.
The league has also seen two of its most high-profile receivers – Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman and Purdue’s Rondale Moore – opt out of the upcoming season.
Sources told the Free Press the Big Ten is trying to coordinate its announcement with other Power Five conferences and that Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren prefers a spring football season, although no decision has been made. A spring season would have to deal with inclement weather and likely more opt outs to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft in late April.
Warren told Yahoo Sports more than a month ago that he was “very concerned” about the fate of the season in an interview about the Big Ten going to a conference-only schedule. The league’s schedule release was also far from celebratory, as the release of a schedule did not include a guarantee that games will be played.
“While the conference remains hopeful for a September 2020 start in all fall sports, including football, issuing a schedule does not guarantee that competition will occur,” the news release said.
