Warren: Next 6-8 Weeks Will Be 'Paramount'
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said on Monday that the next few weeks will be “paramount” in determining when the 2020-21 college sports season can begin.
Warren, in an interview on the Big Ten Network, said safety is the biggest concern when it comes to restarting sports during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“I strongly believe that the next six to eight weeks will be paramount, because there are some states opening up, even as early as today, and we’ll be watching closely,” Warren said. “Are the COVID-19 incidents, are they spiking, are they stable, are they going down?”
Warren said he has been in discussions with college commissioners as well as representatives from professional sports leagues.
“I’m just making sure I’m gathering all of the information, because some of the other sports leagues are ahead of us right now, meaning from a scheduling standpoint. Some are in their seasons, they’re going to make decisions. Does the NBA come back and play? Does the NHL come back and play? When does Major League Baseball start? The NFL is talking about releasing their schedule this week. So we can learn.
“But the thing that we have also on top of that, that the professional sports leagues don’t have, is we need to make sure that our campuses are safe. So before we can even talk about when is the appropriate time to return to play, we need to discuss the issues. When is the appropriate time to have our students, our professors, our people, to be able to go back on campus? So, this is something that’s a fluid situation, I’m working on it every single day of the week. I think as we get into the early part of June that we’ll be in position that we’ll be able to make tangible decisions.”
The conference announced earlier Monday that a moratorium on organized team activities within the conference will continue through June 1. The conference’s previous order was to expire on Monday.
There have been no sports within the Big Ten since the conference’s men’s basketball tournament was canceled on March 12, the same day the NCAA winter and spring championships, as well as all of the spring sports seasons, were canceled. The moratorium on organized activities was announced on March 13.
“There are unprecedented times,” Warren said. “This will be a time in history that people will look back on to see how we handled it. Not how we handled it while we’re in it. But the decisions that we made … I’m very conscious and cognizant that the decisions that we make today will impact the landscape of college sports the next 10, 15, 25 years.”
