BREAKING: Big Ten Officially Cancels 2020 Fall Football Season

The Big Ten opted to formally postpone the fall sports season, which includes football, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic after releasing its schedule six days ago.

BuckeyesWire / USA Today

The final domino has fallen. The Big Ten has canceled its fall 2020 football season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a short back-and-forth between Big Ten presidents, athletic directors, coaches and players, the Big Ten Conference officially announced that the fall 2020 sports season has been postponed. 

The Big Ten released a statement about the matter:

"The Big Ten Conference announced the postponement of the 2020-21 fall sports season, including all regular-season contests and Big Ten Championships and Tournaments, due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In making its decision, which was based on the medical advice and a counsel of the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee."

At the moment, it appears that playing football in the spring is a distinct possibility, but it is unknown how that would impact the start of the 2021 season. Does that also roll over to the spring of the next calendar year or do the involved programs aim to go through two full (or abbreviated) seasons within 12 months?

Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren spoke about the decision to postpone the fall 2020 sports season on the Big Ten Network shortly after the call was made:

"One of the things that we promise ourselves that this was going to be a fluid situation. This was going to be a day-to-day situation, and we would be on a perpetual state of just observing, gathering information and doing everything we possibly could to have fall sports. That being said, the thing, our overarching reason and the overarching issue that we had to always keep at the top of our mind was the fact, and I said it from the first day that I started at the Big Ten that the health, the safety, the wellness in both physical and mental was going to be at the top of my list. And as things began to evolve, you look at the number of cases that are spiking, the number of cases not only in our country, in our states where many of our schools are located but worldwide, was a promise that all the decisions that we will make during my tenure of the Big Ten will always put the mental and physical health and safety and wellness of our students at the center. When you look at this decision,w e just believe collectively there is too much uncertainty at this point in time in our country to encourage our athletes to participate in fall sports. I take this responsibility seriously, and I will continually do everything in my power to make sure we put our student-athletes in a position to be empowered and to be elevated, but it's people first as students. Understand, though, that they're not professionals. These are amateur athletes, and they deserve an opportunity to be able to participate in a healthy and safe manner."

In Warren's conversation with BTN's Dave Revisine, the league commissioner mentioned how this situation has developed rapidly since the schedule was released six days ago. But despite the rollout of the potential schedule, the league felt that it was unsafe to conduct fall sports at the moment. 

Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel responded to the Big Ten's decision shortly thereafter:

"For the second time in five months, the Big Ten Conference made the unfortunate but necessary decision to postpone an athletic season in order to protect the health and well-being of our student-athletes, staff and community members. As a result, all fall sport schedules have been postponed. This latest decision was reached after careful consideration and the grim knowledge that this pandemic continues to affect our country adversely. I am deeply saddened for our student-athletes and remain committed to our ongoing promise to provide them with a world-class education. We remain grateful to our global Michigan family for their unwavering support."

It is unknown how the winter sports, such as basketball, will be impacted by COVID-19, but Wolverine Digest will keep you posted as more information trickles out in the coming days.

Are you surprised by this outcome? Do you agree with the Big Ten's decision? Let us know!