Why Penn State Won't Play Football Outside the Big Ten

"That certainly was not something that we were going to pursue," Penn State's Sandy Barbour said of playing a non-Big Ten schedule.

Penn State coaches and administrators "fought" for a fall sports season, athletics director Sandy Barbour said Monday, but were unwilling to challenge the university's Big Ten membership over it.

Barbour told reporters on a video call that Penn State did not pursue playing football games outside the conference. The Big Ten announced Aug. 11 that it was postponing the fall sports seasons.

"We're a proud member of the Big Ten," Barbour said. "It was clear to me from the beginning that that was not something that was part of our execution of rights as part of our membership as part of the Big Ten."

Several Big Ten schools, notably Ohio State and Nebraska, publicly considered playing football outside of the conference following the decision. Asked by Yahoo! Sports last week about that possibility, Commissioner Kevin Warren said, "No. Not and be a member of the Big Ten conference."

Nebraska and Ohio State later issued statements confirming that they would not pursue outside opportunities.

"Again, we all want to play," Barbour said. "But our presidents had determined that it wasn't safe to play, so that certainly was not something that we were going to pursue."

Big Ten media rights are a significant reason why. Penn State received $55.6 million from the Big Ten in 2019 as part of the conference's revenue distribution, according to financial data compiled by USA Today. The conference reported $781.5 million in revenue, according to USA Today.

Barbour said that the Big Ten is working with its television partners to determine what revenue would remain if football is not played this season.

"Certainly there will be some revenue there for us should we play a spring season," Barbour said. "... That's what we're looking at right now, trying to figure out what that is."

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