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"A Very Productive Conversation": POTUS & Big Ten Commish Discuss Football Restart Plans

The president of the United States and Big Ten commissioner had what both sides are calling "a productive conversation about a restart of its college football season.

Matthew Stevens

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The president of the United States of America has made restarting Big Ten football a priority.

Just 63 days before the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump has sent out two tweets expressing his desire to see the Big Ten Conference restart a fall football season as soon as possible. On Tuesday morning, President Trump tweeted that “he had a very productive conversation” with league commissioner Kevin Warren without getting into details about the substance of that phone call.

“I had a phone call with Kevin Warren. I think (the phone call) was very productive about getting the Big Ten playing again immediately,” President Trump said to media before he departed to Kenosha, Wisconsin Tuesday morning. “(Warren) is a great guy. It’s a great conference, tremendous teams. We’re pushing very hard...we had a very nice conversation and maybe we’ll be nicely surprised. They had it closed up but I think they’d like to see it reopened along with a lot of other football that is being played right now.”

Less than two hours after the president’s tweet, the league released a statement confirming the call between President Trump and Warren took place.

“A White House representative reached out to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren on Monday to facilitate a phone call between President Donald Trump and Commissioner Warren. On Tuesday, Commissioner Warren and the President had a productive conversation,” the Big Ten Conference’s statement reads. “The Big Ten and its Return to Competition Task Force, on behalf of the Big Ten Council of Presidents & Chancellors (COP/C), are exhausting every resource to help student-athletes get back to playing the sports they love, at the appropriate time, in the safest and healthiest way possible.”

However, multiple news outlets have begun to report the president has vowed to Warren and the Big Ten to provide as much assistance with testing and contact tracing as possible in order to see the midwest’s largest college football league get restarted as soon as possible.

As most tweets sent out by this presidential administration, the Tuesday morning tweet regarding his conversation with the leader of the Big Ten Conference, which was sent out at 10:18 a.m. CST, had nearly 13,000 retweets, over 3,100 quote tweets and nearly 65,000 likes in a two-hour span.

In order to help with rapid testing, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new rapid antigen test. According to a statement from the White House, the federal government has purchased 150 million rapid tests last week from Abbot Laboratories.

“Through Operation Warp Speed and in partnership with Abbott Laboratories, final production will be scaled to an unprecedented 50 million tests monthly,” the release, which was produced by the White House press team, says.

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk off the field before the College Football Playoff national championship game between the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk off the field before the College Football Playoff national championship game between the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes-Benz Superdome :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY

The Big Ten Conference disclosed Monday that 11 of its 14 presidents and chancellors voted in favor to cancel the 2020 fall sports calendar, including football. The revelation was made in a brief submitted in response to a lawsuit filed Thursday by eight Nebraska football players seeking restoration of the fall season, and countered speculation that no vote was taken before the Big Ten announced on Aug. 11 that the schedule had been canceled because of uncertainty over the coronavirus.

Multiple outlets are confirming what the Chicago Tribune first reported that Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa were the dissenting votes to postpone the college football fall season. 

In a statement, the conference said the 11-3 decision by the COP/C “far exceeds the 60% threshold required by the Big Ten By-Laws.”

It also said the decision by the 14 members of the COP/C “was based on the input of several medical and infectious disease experts in the best interest of the health and wellness of student-athletes and the surrounding communities among the 14 member institutions.”

President Trump has now made the restart of Big Ten Conference football intertwined in his reelection campaign as he said Tuesday that the “biggest headwind” to the Big Ten Conference restarting fall sports operations are “Democrats that don’t want to see it happen” but Trump is attempting to appeal to the Big Ten Conference fans attracted to the parent, coach and player frustration that has produced protests, letter campaigns to the Big Ten offices and Warren himself. According to fivethirtyeight.com, Trump is polling ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in midwest states of Ohio (50-45 percent), Indiana (53-39), Nebraska (48-46) and Iowa (46-45). However, according to the same polling data aggregation, Biden is ahead in Michigan (50-42) and Wisconsin (49-43).

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Matthew Stevens
MATTHEW STEVENS

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