The Big Ten will not play its season as originally planned amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Longtime sports personality Dan Patrick reported during his radio show Monday that the conference voted to cancel the football season for the fall, which it’ll announce publicly on Tuesday. He said the university presidents made the call in a decisive 12-2 vote that pitted Nebraska and Iowa against the rest of the conference.
The Pac-12 is set to cancel its season on Tuesday, while the Big 12 and ACC are “on the fence” about playing their seasons. The SEC is so far trying to avoid pushing back its season.
DP was told an hour ago that the Big 10 and Pac 12 will cancel their football seasons tomorrow… The ACC and the Big 12 are on the fence.. And the SEC is trying to get teams to join them for a season.
Watch live: https://t.co/sMaeXQkLfl pic.twitter.com/oSUNGMTEqw
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 10, 2020
Conferences are facing pressure to come up with a plan for fall sports as the novel coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country. The Mid-American Conference, or MAC, was the first FBS conference to postpone all fall sports over the weekend.
A number of college football players took to social media to release a statement explaining that they wanted to play safely.
“Establish universal mandated health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college-athletes against COVID-19 among all conferences throughout the NCAA,” the statement read. “Give players the opportunity to opt out and respect their decision. Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not.”
Players from all five of the major conferences were involved in the letter.
