Report: Mountain West Postpones 2020 Football Season; PAC-12, Big Ten Expected to Follow
The Mountain West Conference has reportedly indefinitely postponed its 2020 college football season, following the precedent set by the Mid-American Conference last week.
Sources informed Stadium.com that the Mountain West was postponing the season due to player health and safety concerns regarding COVID-19.
The Mountain West becomes the second FBS conference to cancel its 2020 season, but according to reports is open to playing in the spring.
After much speculation and rumors heading over the weekend, a new report says that both the PAC-12 and Big Ten conferences will be canceling their 2020 college football seasons.
The report came from Dan Patrick on his radio show, The Dan Patrick Show, on Monday morning:
According to the Patrick, the Big Ten voted on the cancellation of football in 2020, with the vote reaching a 12-2 decision in favor of canceling the season. Iowa and Nebraska were reportedly the only two schools to vote in favor of keeping the season alive.
Soon after the news broke of the potential vote, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh released a statement expression his disappointment in the Big Ten's decision. In his statement, Harbaugh outlined the facts regarding COVID-19 testing at the University of Michigan and its results over the past eight weeks:
"I am forever proud of our players, parents, coaches and staff for being leaders and role models in our sport, at our institution and in society," Harbaugh said. "We will continue to follow all health and safety guidelines, teach, train, and coach those young men and their families that have put their trust in us, while advocating for a football season in the fall."
Regardless of Harbaugh's protests, both the PAC-12 and the Big Ten are now expected to make a formal announcement on Tuesday, but are reportedly waiting to hear from the other conferences so that a unified decision might be reached.
There has been no news coming out of the remaining Power Five conferences, with the SEC, Big 12 and ACC remaining quiet on the matter. However, rumors have begun to circulate that the SEC is digging its heels in and has invited other teams to join its conference for the 2020 season. Those reports should strictly remain rumors for now, though, as there has been no confirmation or formal report regarding the situation.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey posted the following statement on Twitter regarding the conference and its ongoing discussions regarding football in 2020:
Confirmed reports are now coming out that the SEC is holding a conference call with its schools' presidents that was not previously scheduled. The athletic directors of the conference already held a previously-scheduled phone call on Monday morning, but reports indicate that the school presidents are now holding a call of their own with the conference.
No vote on whether the SEC will continue to have football in 2020 is expected, but that could change as the day progresses.
While all five conferences have announced their revised schedules — or at least the teams' opponents in the SEC's case — they are far from out of the woods in preparation for the upcoming season.
Last month saw the announcement of conference-only schedules from each of the Power Five in an attempt to establish conference bubbles to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19. The plan had holes, but it seemed like a better alternative than to have teams travel to further places across the country and risk exposing players, coaches and staff to the virus.
However, last week the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS conference to formally cancel its 2020 season, removing three opponents from the ACC's 10+1 format of season.
In the SEC, Arkansas has so far led the charge in maintaining a 2020 season. Joining the We Want to Play movement, both Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman and athletic director Hunter Yurachek made public statements regarding their thoughts on the upcoming season.
This move comes as a suprise to many since Arkansas was arguably dealt the toughest hand in last week's scheduling announcement by the SEC. However, the players and coaching staff as well as Arkansas administration have all voiced their opposition to the potential for no football this year.
The "We Want to Play" movement has begun to pick up steam since Sunday night, bringing in players from all over the country including Alabama running back Najee Harris, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence among others.
As players started to let their thoughts be known on social media, coaches and other personnel across the country also began to throw in their support. However, none of this stopped the PAC-12 and Big Ten from reaching their decisions, as the conferences are potentially the most liable in this situation should players contract COVID-19 from contact on the field.
Throwing his support behind the University of Arkansas and the rest of the We Want to Play movement, United States senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) published a letter that he sent to the colleges of the Big Ten, requesting that the 2020 season go on as scheduled.
The letter has been met with mixed reactions, but seems to have fallen on deaf ears due to the reported Big Ten's cancelation of football.
Later on Monday afternoon, Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne also contributed to the movement, retweeting Crimson Tide tight end Miller Forristall and expressing his confidence in both the University of Alabama's and the SEC's leadership:
The debate continues to rage on. Classes on college campuses are slated to start back for the fall semester in the coming weeks, and while professional sports are able to invest time and money in creating bubbles to protest its athletes and personnel, college athletics can afford no such luxury with players still having to attend classes.
Creating a bubble on a college campus is an impossible task, and the conference administration and school athletic directors are beginning to come to this realization.
With the PAC-12 and Big Ten reportedly reaching their decisions, all eyes are now on the SEC, ACC and Big 12 to see how they respond.
