All Big Ten Schools Strapping On Pads In Practice Starting Wednesday

Big Ten Conference programs will be authorized to have shoulder pads in practices starting Wednesday and fully padded practice starting the following day.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For the first time since the end of the 2019 season, the Big Ten Conference will authorize the use of shoulder pads in practices for all 14 programs.

After a two-day acclimation period, all programs will be able to be in shoulder pads from Sept. 30 to the Oct. 23-24 weekend and all 14 programs will have the ability to have fully padded practices throughout the entire month of October in preparation for the Big Ten opening weekend.

For the Illinois football team, Wednesday will be the first time they’ll be any kind of football field with shoulder pads on since losing to California 35-20 in the 2019 Redbox Bowl. Going back to last month before the Big Ten fall sports calendar was shut down, the Illini football team has been practicing in nothing more than helmets, jerseys, gym shorts and cushioned skeleton pads.

Indiana was able to get one padded practice in during the early morning hours of Aug. 8 shortly before the league temporarily halted on-field practice activity and eventually postponed football and the entire fall sports calendar on Aug. 11.

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith will be allowed to have shoulder pads in practices starting Wednesday and fully-padded practices starting the following day.  :: David Craan/University of Illinois athletics department

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith confirmed the news of the league’s decision to authorize shoulder pads in practice starting Wednesday.

“We’ve been in helmets and jersey for quite a period of time but we’ve really been able to get some really good work done and we still have a long period of time before we have to play our first game,” Smith said Monday morning. “I would think most coaches would survey that they’d like more time to teach and to teach when you’re not rushed. In all my years of coaching before that first game, there never seems to be enough time. We’ve had plenty of time this season.”

Illinois will open its 2020 campaign at No. 19 Wisconsin, which has won the Western Division of the league in three of the last four seasons.

The date of allowing padded practices coincides with the agreed date to start daily coronavirus antigen testing of all players and “community” around the football program. The guidelines were set by the league’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors thanks to recommendations by the conference’s Return to Competition Task Force.

“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, Ohio State’s head team physician, said in a league media release on Sept. 16. “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.”

Borchers was also co-chair of the Return to Competition Task Force medical subcommittee.

According to league protocols, all 14 schools will have the opportunity to practice in just shoulder pads Wednesday and then the discretion of how to conduct fully-padded practice time under the mandated weekly 20-hour rule will be determined by the individual program’s.

On Sept. 16, the league announced its nine-game regular season schedule for the 2020 season and released the week-by-week schedule schedule on Sept 19. Each conference team will be scheduled to play six games within their division and two cross-divisional contests starting Oct. 23 and ending the weekend of Dec. 12. A ninth game will be scheduled the following week in what the league is calling its “Championship Weekend” matching corresponding seeds from each division on the same weekend as the Big Ten Championship Game scheduled for Dec. 19 in Indianapolis, just one day before the four College Football Playoff selections are currently slated to be made.