Camp Randall Stadium (Photo by David Stluka)
Big Ten football teams have opened fall camps, but Big Ten presidents and chancellors are preparing to shut down fall sports with the idea of trying to shift them to the spring.
Power 5 conference commissioners met Sunday to discuss the upcoming football season and according to various reports, are considering canceling it altogether amid growing concerns over the coronavirus.
The Big Ten is ready to pull the plug on fall sports and wanted to gauge where the other conferences were at. No official vote has been taken by any Power 5 conference yet.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports an announcement is expected early this week.
The Mid-American Conference on Saturday became the first FBS conference to announce it was moving football and other fall sports to the spring. For the Big Ten Conference to do the same, there are a number of obstacles that would need to be addressed. Playing a season with inclement weather is one and you can add in players potentially opting out of the season in order to prepare for the 2021 NFL draft.
If the Big Ten announces it will shut down fall sports, it would come less than a week after the league unveiled a revamped 10-game football schedule, along with detailed protocols for COVID-19 testing.
Late Sunday, players representing the Power 5 conferences staged a campaign on Twitter, attempting to convince school presidents, chancellors and league commissioners to find a way to play football in 2020. But it would appear that effort will fall well short of its intended goal.