The most topsy-turvy college football season to date just got even more complicated. Last month we saw the Big-Ten vote to cancel all fall sports, which included the fall season for football. However Wednesday morning the Big-Ten committee voted, and unanimously agreed, to reverse this decision. They will now look for a Big-Ten football season to start on Oct. 24th, 2020.
The Big-Ten return-to-competition task force and the medical committee gave a presentation to eight Big-Ten presidents which they approved. This pitch included focuses on the medical and safety issues going on today, game scheduling and TV scheduling as well.
Due to the fact that the Big-Ten made this decision after the college football season had already started for most, they will now be forced to attempt playing eight games in just eight weeks. A conference championship game would be held Dec 19th, the day before the College Football Playoff Committee is set to vote on who makes into the College Football Playoff.
If we see a team’s positive test rate surpass 5%, or the area population’s positive test rate surpass 7.5%, that program must suspend activities for one week. This means no room for error in the Big-Ten. A single outbreak can, and most likely will, end the season for these schools.
This decision comes just a few days after Shaun Wade, and Wyatt Davis, some of Ohio State’s biggest names, both opted out of this season. I would now expect both of these players to find a way to opt back into the season considering the lack of a potential National Title match was the biggest reason both opted out on the year.
A schedule is expected to be released by the end of next week. Each team is also set to play an additional game on championship Saturday against the team that placed the same in the opposite division.
