Optimism Grows for Big Ten Football's Return

Big Ten presidents could approve resuming the 2020 football season, one month after postponing it.

Big Ten Conference presidents reportedly were pleased Sunday with a medical committee report that presented options for restarting the 2020 season, resulting in a new wait for another vote.

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde reported Sunday that some programs are preparing for an October start that seemed unthinkable in August, when the Big Ten not only postponed the season but also said that it would not revisit the decision.

Sources: Big Ten meeting has been productive in terms of medical plan and maintaining momentum toward playing this fall. Vote has not taken place yet; could still happen tonight or tomorrow. Some schools already setting practice schedules in preparation for October kickoff.

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) September 13, 2020

But new COVID-19 testing procedures and medical protocols that have become available since August changed the landscape. The Big Ten has been pursuing rapid-testing opportunities for conference teams, which had been one of the major points toward returning.

The Big Ten has taken college football on a wild ride since Aug. 11, when the conference announced its decision to postpone fall sports. The conference likely didn't expect the reaction to be so acute, with players, coaches, administrators and political figures pushing back against the move.

As Penn State coach James Franklin has said, "I don’t necessarily have an issue with the decision, but I have an issue with the process and I've got an issue with the timing."

Eight days after announcing the decision, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren released an "open letter" in which he cited the primary medical factors for the Big Ten's move. In the letter, Warren said that the decision to postpone the season "will not be revisited."

But as the college football season began, and professional sports continued, the Big Ten quietly moved toward a restart. Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour served as co-chair of the medical subcommittee of the Return to Competition task force that constructed new models for testing and COVID-19 mitigation.

During a recent appearance on the Penn State Coaches Show, Barbour said that advancements, particularly regarding testing, over the past five weeks had changed the outlook for playing. Barbour also said that the Big Ten was pursuing a testing deal similar to the one announced by the Pac-12.

"The rate of innovation on a daily basis relative to testing is enormous," Barbour said on the show. "Obviously, the decision was made on Aug. 11, and in those intervening [weeks] there has been a huge amount of advancement in testing that's come to light."

Penn State has been practicing under the NCAA's 12-hour-per-week model, which allows for five hours of on-field instruction. The football team was not among those at Penn State that paused practices because of a rise in COVID-19 positive results among athletes.

Franklin has been pushing for this moment for weeks. In fact, on Penn State's official football podcast, the coach said he felt ready to play.

"We’ve learned from the other conferences, we’ve learned from the NFL," Franklin said. "... We didn’t need to make the decision when we made it. We could have pressed pause, we could have moved some things back like the other conferences did and continue to learn. That’s kind of where we’re at now.

"Even though we did a pause or cancellation, it's not like we stopped working to resolve the challenges and the issues, and now we're there. If we can get this thing going again and do it soon, then we've got a chance to put everybody in the best situation."

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