Models For A Big Ten Winter Football Season Will Also Include Planning For Next Fall
The discussion of playing a winter or spring Big Ten football season is ongoing, with several models being considered.
Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said on Monday that those models, though, won’t be about just the eight or 10 games that teams might play in the first few months of 2021.
They’ll be about how to play a full 2021 fall season as well.
Barta said moving forward after the Big Ten postponed the fall season on August 11 will include being focused on the safety of playing two football seasons in one calendar year.
“One of the things we’re talking about is that very question,” he said Monday. “What would the number of games be in making sure there’s enough time between the last game and the opening game of the fall season.
“One of the principles is making sure our student-athletes are healthy going into (a) 2021 (fall season), and we’re able to play a full 12-game schedule and a bowl game. So that’s one of the reasons we’re looking at the earlier schedule rather than later in the spring.”
Barta said many of the models include starting at some point in January or early February, and maybe even playing at off-campus sites at various indoor stadiums around the Midwest.
Barta said there isn’t a set deadline to begin preparing for a winter/spring season. In planning for a normal fall schedule, a timeframe of 4-6 weeks to get ready was considered.
With college football teams given limited workout time this fall, Barta said he could see a similar timeline for a winter season.
“If we’re able to continue to train though leading up to December, I could see a scenario where we start in earnest with a camp in December that gets us ready to play in January,” he said.
“We’re going to fight our way through this,” Barta added. “We’re going to come out of this on the other end. It’s just the uncertainties. The uncertainties make it very uncomfortable.”
