Nebraska Prez On Hot Mic Confirms Big Ten Football Fall Season, Then Attempts Backtrack On Comments

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- If the University of Nebraska president is to be trusted, it does appear a Big Ten Conference fall football season is going to be announced soon.

According to KETV7 in Omaha, University of Nebraska president Ted Carter was caught on a live mic Tuesday morning, before starting a university media conference, sharing to National Strategic Research Institute director Bob Hinson that the conference will announce its plans for the 2020 football season later this evening.

“We’re getting ready to announce the Huskers and Big Ten football tonight,” Carter told Hinson on a hot mic before a news conference in Lincoln.

Heard on hot mic, University of Nebraska president says #bigtenfootball announcement comes tonighthttps://t.co/EXd3fuHJ5i
— KETV NewsWatch 7 (@KETV) September 15, 2020

However, when asked about those hot mic comments by local reporters after the media conference, Carter claimed that statement was "taken out of context" and "there's work still going on" despite his quotes being heard clearly and in a serious manner.

University of Nebraska president Ted Carter was heard on hot mic saying that an announcement will come tonight regarding the #Huskers and the #BigTen football season.

I asked him about the comments. He says they were taken out of context. pic.twitter.com/SP0x5ZqCtF
— Yousef Nasser (@YousefNasserTV) September 15, 2020

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Sunday afternoon via “sources familiar with the decision” the expectation is the Big Ten’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors will soon vote to start the season, with the target start date of Oct. 17. The COP/C voted 11-3 on Aug. 11 to cancel the league’s fall sports calendar due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska, where Carter didn't cast that vote (Nebraska chancellor Ronnie Green did that), were the three schools that voted to play immediately.

If the council has voted to play, the season could start as early as Oct. 17. That date would allow Big Ten teams to play eight-game season in a nine-week window, with a league title game Dec. 19, just one day before the College Football Playoff four-team bracket is revealed on ESPN on Dec. 20.

Since the beginning of this fall college football season across the country, eight schools (SMU, TCU, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Virginia and Tulsa) have been forced to postpone games due to COVID-19 positive tests during game week.

Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez, who is the chairperson of the Big Ten’s return to competition task force, announced Wednesday that the football and men’s hockey workouts were being shut down for two weeks due to a recent COVID-19 outbreak. On Sept. 3, Maryland stopped all athletic workouts after 46 student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 across 10 teams. The Terrapins football program have yet to resume workouts since that initially pausing at the beginning of the month.

The newfound availability of rapid testing has allowed the medical personnel involved in the Big Ten return-to-play task force feel more comfortable about being able to responsibly handle a fall football season.

Data shows the University of Illinois, with the development of its rapid on-campus saliva test, has already more-than-doubled the amount of tests done on its student body and faculty than the next highest Big Ten Conference school.

"If we had a saliva test that we could get back within an hour," Alvarez said recently in a Zoom meeting with local and statewide reporters, "Heck, we could have our guys do their test, go in and have breakfast and they’d have an answer before they went to practice and we could have a clean practice field."

In an exclusive interview with NJ Advance Media reporter Steve Politi published Thursday, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway reaffirmed his agreement with the initial Big Ten postponement on Aug. 11 and said waiting until the spring semester is the best course for the conference to take, citing more time is needed to “learn about the science, different kinds of tests and potential vaccines.”

Holloway played football at Stanford University and said he understood the public relations aspect of this decision.

“I know other universities are facing unique pressures in the other direction. I get that,” Holloway said. “That’s just where I am right now, We’ll hope for the best, frankly. No president, whether they’re pushing to start tomorrow or in January, none of us wants to risk our students. There are different levels of comfort and confidence about how we can move forward.”