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BREAKING: Big Ten Conference Football Returns To A Fall Season Starting Oct. 23-24

The Big Ten Conference officially announced its plan to conduct an eight-game football schedule this fall starting Oct. 23-24.

Matthew Stevens

BREAKING: Big Ten Conference Football Returns To A Fall Season Starting Oct. 23-24
BREAKING: Big Ten Conference Football Returns To A Fall Season Starting Oct. 23-24 /

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Big Ten Conference will have a 2020 fall football season.

The league officially announced its plan to conduct a fall football season with the start date being the weekend of Oct. 23-24. 

Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez, who was the chairperson of the Big Ten’s return to competition task force, confirmed on Big Ten Network that the league schedule will be a eight-game regular season and then a "championship week" that will include the Big Ten Championship Game but also every team in the league will play a crossover game based on where they finish in their divisional standings. According to a follow-up question to Alvarez, the league is aiming to avoid repeat games for the ninth matchup of the season so it may not be a straight (2nd in East vs. 2nd in West) matchup.

Penn State athletics director Sandy Barbour confirmed on Big Ten Network Wednesday morning the league elected not to have public sale of tickets but are currently looking into how players families can be accommodated for both home and road games.

The Big Ten’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors was able to reverse its previous decision, by a 11-3 vote, on Aug. 11 to cancel the fall sports calendar. Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska were the three schools that voted to play immediately last month. League bylaws say a reversal of that initial vote would take a reversal of six members of the Big Ten’s COP/C. According to the league media release, the revote to play fall football was unanimous. 

According to the league release, the COP/C "adopted significant medical protocols including daily antigen testing, enhanced cardiac screening and an enhanced data-driven approach when making decisions about practice/competition".

“Everyone associated with the Big Ten should be very proud of the groundbreaking steps that are now being taken to better protect the health and safety of the student-athletes and surrounding communities,” Dr. Jim Borchers, Head Team Physician, The Ohio State University and co-chair of the Return to Competition Task Force medical subcommittee said in the league media release. "The data we are going to collect from testing and the cardiac registry will provide major contributions for all 14 Big Ten institutions as they study COVID-19 and attempt to mitigate the spread of the disease among wider communities.”

All COVID-19 positive student-athletes will have to undergo comprehensive cardiac testing to include labs and biomarkers, ECG, Echocardiogram and a Cardiac MRI. Following cardiac evaluation, student-athletes must receive clearance from a cardiologist designated by the university for the primary purpose of cardiac clearance for COVID-19 positive student-athletes. The earliest a student-athlete can return to game competition is 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis. The daily testing will begin by September 30, 2020. 

"We relied on medical experts," Northwestern president Morton Schapiro said Wednesday morning on Big Ten Network. "Once they convinced us it was safe to play, we made an unanimous decision."

In addition to the medical protocols approved, the 14 Big Ten institutions will establish a cardiac registry in an effort to examine the effects on COVID-19 positive student-athletes. The registry and associated data will attempt to answer many of the unknowns regarding the cardiac manifestations in COVID-19 positive elite athletes.

"Our focus with the Task Force over the last six weeks was to ensure the health and safety of our student-athletes. Our goal has always been to return to competition so all student-athletes can realize their dream of competing in the sports they love,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said in the media release. “We are incredibly grateful for the collaborative work that our Return to Competition Task Force have accomplished to ensure the health, safety and wellness of student-athletes, coaches and administrators.”

According to Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Pete Thamel, University of Illinois chancellor Robert Jones was among the initial group of eight COP/C members that heard the initial medical return-to-play presentation Saturday. Among the eight COP/C members were Jones, Minnesota President Joan Gabel, Nebraska Chancellor Ronnie Green, Iowa President Bruce Harreld, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, Ohio State President Kristina Johnson and Michigan State President Samuel Stanley. Following Saturday’s presentation, the same plan was introduced to all 14 Big Ten COP/C members the following day.

Alvarez said earlier this month the newfound availability of rapid testing has allowed the medical personnel involved in the Big Ten to feel more comfortable about being able to responsibly handle a 2020 fall football season.

"If we had a saliva test that we could get back within an hour," Alvarez said recently in a Zoom meeting with local and statewide reporters, "Heck, we could have our guys do their test, go in and have breakfast and they’d have an answer before they went to practice and we could have a clean practice field."

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Data shows the University of Illinois, with the development of its rapid on-campus saliva test, has already more-than-doubled the amount of tests done on its student body and faculty than the next highest Big Ten Conference school.

Alvarez announced Wednesday that the football and men’s hockey workouts were being shut down for two weeks due to a recent COVID-19 outbreak. On Sept. 3, Maryland stopped all athletic workouts after 46 student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 across 10 teams. The Terrapins football program has yet to resume workouts since that initial pausing at the beginning of the month.

Now that a plan has been implemented for a fall season, all Big Ten programs will now be able to work under the 20-hour practice and workout rule by the NCAA and will be able to conduct full-contact practices with shoulder pads for the first time this fall. Since August, the Big Ten had been operating on a 12-hour practice and workout rule that prohibited on-field practices be conducted with anything more than helmets, skeleton pads and gym shorts.

The Oct. 23-24 start date will represent the latest the University of Illinois will start a football season. The last time Illinois played a season opener to a college football season without playing a game in either August or September was nearly 79 years ago when on Oct. 4, 1941 the Illini defeated Miami (Ohio) 45-0 in Champaign to begin what would be a 2-6 campaign. The last time the Illini began a season in the second week of October was in 1922, when Red Grange was a freshman (and at that time freshman were ineligible for college athletics), and Illinois lost to Butler 10-7 in Champaign on Oct. 14.

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Matthew Stevens
MATTHEW STEVENS

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