Report: Big Ten “Ready to Pull the Plug” on Fall Sports

According to sources, ESPN reported earlier today that the Big Ten is “ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season” after a meeting with school presidents. From there, there was an emergency meeting on Sunday between commissioners of the Power 5 conferences — ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC — to discuss playing or not playing fall sports during the pandemic.

The call, ESPN reported, was to see if other Power 5 commissioners were on the same page as the Big Ten.

With the MAC already pulling the plug, it’s looking more and more like there won’t be football this fall, and with the things we’ve seen already from Major League Baseball, it makes sense. Without a bubble, it’s just too risky.

Several sources have told ESPN over the past 48 hours that the postponement or cancellation of the football season seems inevitable.

(via ESPN)

There’s something else to be said about it being, you know, college kids and not pros. Being asked to play under these conditions is one thing if you’re getting paid and under contract. It’s an entirely different thing to have looked a player’s parent in the eyes and told them you’d take care of their child and then send them around the country with a potentially deadly virus lurking.

Ideally, fall sports would be moved to the spring of 2021 but we still don’t know if things will be cleared up by then either. Everyone is playing it by ear. Without a rock-solid plan to keep kids safe, while also ensuring they can do their school work, it seems nearly impossible.

“It doesn’t look good,” one Power 5 athletic director said.

(via ESPN)