Big Ten Conference Postpones Fall Sports Season; No Football In 2020
The Big Ten Conference will not play a regular season football game in 2020.
After reports Monday indicated the league's decision to cancel the season, the league office made the decision official at 2 p.m. CST with an announcement on the Big Ten Network and a subsequent media release. Along with football, the Big Ten Conference has postponed all of its entire fall sports season, which would include volleyball, soccer and cross country.
“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”
“We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The Big Ten became the first Power Five conference to postpone its fall 2020 sports season after other FBS conferences (Mid-American Conference and Mountain West Conference) made similar decisions in the last few days. The Pac-12 Conference would later postpone its fall 2020 sports season.
“The discussions that led to the decision to postpone fall sports were as frank and honest as they were difficult,” University of Illinois chancellor Robert Jones said. “We recognize the intense disappointment this will bring to our student-athletes, coaches, athletic staff and fans. But as important as collegiate athletic competition is to the Big Ten university experience, the health and safety of our students, staff, faculty and campus community must be our priority. There are just too many unknowns with COVID-19 today and the future continues to be just as unclear as it was months ago. We feel this decision offers the best way to maximize the safety of everyone involved. But that doesn’t make it any easier to hear for any of us who love sports.”
The Big Ten Conference was the first Power Five Conference to announce that, on July 9, it would go with a conference-only schedule for fall sports including football. The league office released its revised 10-game schedule on Wednesday and permitted Illinois, Ohio State, Indiana and Wisconsin to open its preseason practices the following day with the rest of the league permitted to begin practices Friday.
This cancellation would mark the first time the University of Illinois failed to play a sanctioned football game in a calendar year since the program was created in 1892. Even in 1906, Illinois managed to play five regular season games from Oct. 13 to Nov. 25 during one of the biggest typhoid fever epidemics in history, with the Illini going 1-3-1 against Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Wabash College and the University of Chicago.
“My heart hurts for our student-athletes and coaches,” Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman said in a university statement. “Over these last months, countless people, including our student-athletes, coaches, sports medicine professionals, and so many other staff members have worked tirelessly to give our teams the best chance to compete this fall. Our people have done everything we have asked of them, which makes today’s decision so disappointing. The bar set here at the University of Illinois for testing and the return-to-play protocol is second-to-none, and I am proud of our progress.
“Unfortunately, despite best efforts on our campus and across the conference, the remaining unknowns and uncertainties stemming from COVID-19 ultimately proved insurmountable,” Whitman continued. “The health and safety of our student-athletes, staff, and our community must drive our decisions. We will support our student-athletes as they deal with the emotions stemming from today’s decision. We continue to work with the Big Ten on future plans as we move forward with returning our student-athletes to classes and training.”
Illinois conducted its fifth non-contact practice, with players in just helmets, jerseys and shorts, of the preseason Tuesday. Illinois head coach Lovie Smith has repeated he was taking a day-to-day approach with his Illini football program in terms of practice preparation. The league office announced Saturday morning football practices throughout the 14 schools will not be permitted to consist of full-contact workouts/scrimmage with pads.
“When I say we’ve been talking, we’ve talked about every imaginable thing that could happen. We’ve talked about, okay, if there was a stoppage, our (10-game conference-only) schedule was set up for that,” Smith said. “If somebody tests positive, we have a schedule for that. If we can play, we have a schedule. If we can’t play, we have a schedule and next, you’d look to the spring. Eventually we’re going to play football. When I say everything has been discussed, it’s not like we’re just getting here right now.”