Rutgers Planning To Limit On-Campus Activities; Illini To Play At Scarlet Knights On Oct. 3

An announcement to limit on-campus activities and fall semester in-person classes could hinder a possible Oct. 3 football game where Illinois is slated to play at Rutgers.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Illinois road football game at Rutgers in October just got exceedingly more difficult to accomplish.

In an email sent out Monday morning addressed to students, faculty, and staff, Rutgers University announced the upcoming fall 2020 semester classes will be conducted mostly online with limited in-person instruction. Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway made the lengthy announcement saying, “I am writing today to inform you that after careful consideration of all possible models for safely and effectively delivering instruction during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Rutgers is planning for a Fall 2020 semester that will combine a majority of remotely delivered courses with a limited number of in-person classes. Each of the chancellors will be communicating later today with more detail about what this means for the students they serve.”

Holloway’s Monday morning email also includes the line “Decisions regarding the upcoming athletic season will continue to be guided by state requirements and policies developed by the campuses’ respective athletic conferences.” At Rutgers, all athletics department moves regarding decision on fall sports being played will be based on New Jersey governor Phil Murphy’s statewide orders and approvals and recommendations from the Big Ten officials in Chicago including league commissioner Kevin Warren.

In his first interview as president last Wednesday, Holloway publicly addressed his personal skepticism at the 2020 college football season kicking starting on time during the Labor Day weekend and mentioned moving college football to the spring as one of the primary options still being considered.

Illinois is slated to play at Rutgers on Oct. 3 in what is scheduled to be the Illini’s first road game of the 2020 schedule and the Big Ten Conference opener for Lovie Smith’s program after they play non-conference home games against Illinois State, Connecticut and Bowling Green in September.

Last week during his 50-minute Zoom video conference with local and statewide media, Illinois linebacker Milo Eifler questioned the logistics of getting to a road game at Rutgers while the country was in the midst of a nationwide coronavirus pandemic with certain east coast locations being considered COVID-19 hotspots.