REPORTS: Big Ten Conference Considering Canceling 2020 College Football Season
The Big Ten Conference's 2020 college football season will reportedly never happen.
Multiple outlets are reporting the school presidents are in favor of canceling the fall sports seasons in the Big Ten Conference. The Detroit Free Press reported Monday morning that the vote was 12-2 in favor of not playing sports in the spring.
On his syndicated radio show Monday morning, Dan Patrick reported Nebraska and Iowa presidents voted to play.
Sports Illustrated senior reporters Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde reported Sunday evening that "high-level conference meetings are being planned for this week across the college football landscape with the expected resolution of postponing fall sports until 2021".
The University of Iowa athletics department released a media statement Monday morning saying their scheduled practice was canceled due to the school "awaiting further direction from Big Ten office in regard to further workouts w/or w/out full pads".
Illinois had already scheduled Monday as an off day from practice for players and coaches and were scheduled to retake the practice fields Tuesday morning. The Illini conducted its fourth non-contact practice in just helmets, jerseys and shorts Sunday. Illinois fifth-year head coach Lovie Smith was asked Saturday his thoughts on a possible spring season and said his team "would embrace the spring" if that is when the Big Ten Conference would next permit football to be played.
"Eventually we’re going to have football so we’re going to embrace that time whenever it comes," Smith said Saturday. "If things change and they tell us it’s the spring, we’ll look forward to the spring."
The Big Ten Conference was the first Power Five Conference to announce, 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 league permitted to begin practices Friday.
Illini Now/SI reported Illinois was prepared to have its first full-contact practice Saturday with players in full pads, but about 90 minutes before the start of the scheduled practice, the Big Ten announced workouts would only be permitted in just helmets, jerseys and shorts with no physical contact.
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 the 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.