All 14 Big Ten Presidents Will Meet Sunday, Likely Vote Within 72 Hours on Football Season
Step one in the hope for a Big Ten football season seems to have been successful.
According to Yahoo! Sports Pete Thamel, the Big Ten presentation by the Return to Competition Task Force has ended successfully on Saturday. The full 14 Big Ten Chancellors and Presidents will meet tomorrow and are expected to vote on return to play in next 72 hours.
As had been previously reported by Thamel and many other outlets, the Big Ten Return to Competition Task Force has several subcommittees that were in charge of gathering information and formulating a plan that would allow the league to play this fall.
Members of that task force presented their collective plan to eight of the 14 members on the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors. If those eight members deemed the report credible enough to bring together the remaining six members for a full discussion and vote, they would do so. Should that report not have been sufficient, then Saturday's discussion would have ended any hope for football returning in the Big Ten.
The Big Ten Presidents and Chancellors previously voted 11-3 in favor of postponing the fall sports seasons. The conference bylaws indicate a need for nine votes in favor of making a decision. That means if there is to be football played this fall, assuming Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa don't suddenly change their minds, members of the task force need to convince at least six presidents to change their minds.
Judging by Thamel's report, it sounds like Big Ten teams and fans will know by Tuesday afternoon whether there is a plan to play football this fall. He says the optimistic start date for the league is October 17 with a Big Ten Championship game scheduled for late December.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said this morning on ESPN's College GameDay that his team has done everything asked of them during the last several weeks without knowing if and when they'll play.
"The presidents have a tough job here and we’ll see what comes out of the weekend. But the top thing we’re focusing on is just our players. The number one job for a coach is to take care of your players," Day said. "We fully understand that there have been hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their lives and loved ones during this time, and by no means am I comparing what they’ve been through to what we’ve been through.
"But it’s been very difficult for our players. They’ve had a hard the past month and certainly the past few weeks understanding how it all fits in for them. They’ve done everything that’s been asked, and to see others playing, that’s where they’ve had the hardest time."
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