Big Ten Press Conference: Details On 2020 Football Season
Not long after the Big Ten announced it would be continuing the 2020 football season starting the weekend of Oct. 23 and 24, a press conference was held on the Big Ten Network to hash out the details. The press conference, which was hosted by Dave Revsine, featured Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, Ohio State head physician James Borchers, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour and Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Jim Phillips.
The press conference lasted for nearly one hour, and the panel of guests did their best to explain and outline the details of the Big Ten's announcement. Here are the main points from the information release:
- The Big Ten is going to play an 8+1 schedule, which means each team will have eight regular season games scheduled against conference opponents and then one more game against a team from the opposite division.
- Barry Alvarez said that the conference is going to try to avoid any “repeat games” from the regular season when scheduling the final contest in the 8+1 format.
- The Big Ten champion will be eligible for the College Football Playoffs. Bowl games are on the table for other teams within the conference, but there are not currently any final details on that matter.
- No fans will be allowed inside the stadiums via ticket sales. Big Ten schools will establish on-campus accommodations for the families of players and coaches.
- Morton Schapiro said that his mind was changed within the last week on the safety of playing college football this year. Schapiro said that meetings held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday were critical to his eventual “Yes” vote to play football.
- The Big Ten is going to implement a very strict testing process that will determine the positivity rate of COVID-19 on each team. The conference will be using a rolling seven-day average to determine if a team is in the green, yellow or red range. Moving into the red range will require the school to stop practicing and playing games for at least one week.
- Advanced antigen testing will be available to teams at the end of the month.
- A schedule for the 2020 season should be released later in the week according to Alvarez.
Now that the Big Ten season is full-go, schools are have been given the clearance to have padded practices with their teams. Every program will certainly be in a rush to prepare for Week 1, but the teams are likely glad to have a season to prepare for at all.
Stay tuned to Wolverine Digest for further developments.
What do you think about the Big Ten holding a football season this year? Do you like the 8+1 schedule or do you think it could be better constructed? Let us know!
