On Aug. 11, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren announced that all fall sports would be postponed with hopes of being able to play in the spring. He announced that the reasons for the cancellation were due to a large amount of unknowns with the Covid-19 virus and its effects. 

As practices started to get more intense and full contact, medical staff “did not think the interventions they had planned would be adequate to decrease the potential spread even with very regular testing,” according to badgerswire.usatoday.com.  They believed the protocols they put in place would not be sufficient enough and would be putting many players and staff at great risk. 

The hope for the season has returned though after the Big Ten “assembled a Return to Competition Task Force consisting of members from the COP/C(Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors), sports medicine and university medical personnel, Athletic Directors, Head Coaches, Faculty Athletic Representatives and Senior Women Administrators to plan for the return of fall sports competition as soon as possible,” as explained by the bigten.org.  Although many may or may not agree with its decisions, the Big Ten is putting extensive efforts into finding a way for there to be fall sports seasons. The association is gathering feedback from student-athletes, families, and others and is trying to make the best decision for all student-athletes and staff and keeping their health and safety the number one priority.

This cancellation will have a major effect on many people, shown by the many student-athletes voicing their strong opinions, most notably by potential Heisman candidate and Ohio State’s star quarterback Justin Fields, who started a petition to the Big Ten and Warren to let the players play–it now has over 300,000 signatures and had 200,000 within only a few days. 

The Big Ten was split right down the middle with playing or not playing;7 teams are in favor of playing and seven in favor of not. Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern are all in favor of starting the season and Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Rutgers, Minnesota, Maryland, and Wisconsin all believe the Big Ten made the right decision. 

Most players are part of the WeWantToPlay movement voicing their opinions over various platforms like Twitter and Instagram, but what do the coaches have to say?  Head coaches Jim Harbaugh, Scott Frost, Ryan Day, and James Franklin all voiced their opinions on wanting to play fall football. Nebraska Head Coach Scott Frost stated, “Our university is committed to playing no matter what. No matter what that looks like. We want to play no matter who it is or where it is…We certainly hope it’s in the Big Ten, but if it isn’t we’re prepared to look for other options,” says journalstar.com.  Other schools such as Ohio State have stated that they would be prepared to switch conferences if the Big Ten goes through with the cancellation. It is quite clear that most schools want to play football this fall and are prepared to do the most to make that happen.

Although this was a very tough decision for the Big Ten committee to make, it was shown that it was handled in a very poor fashion with Day stating on Twitter “the communication of information from the Big Ten… has been disappointing and often unclear.”

Even President Donald Trump had something to say about this. He simply tweeted “Play College Football!”

Cancelling football could actually put many players in danger. Many athletes depend on their sports to keep them out of dangerous situations, whether that’s in their homes, they live in a bad area, or gang violence, they need athletics to keep them safe. Ajc.com stated, “More than a dozen schools have since reported more than three dozen positive cases of COVID-19 or the coronavirus as athletes arrive on campus.” Athletes are testing positive for Covid-19 and we know that and there will continue to be more cases, but college athletes train everyday, are in peak physical condition, and at a point in their lives where this virus will do little to no harm to them. Mayoclinic.org stated that the people most affected by Covid- 19 are those “who are older and also in people of any age who have other serious health problems — such as heart or lung conditions, weakened immune systems, severe obesity, or diabetes.” Athletes aren’t affected by most of those problems listed, so how is Covid-19 going to affect them?

And now with the season being postponed until mid-October, athletes and coaches can go back to being ready to make their playoff runs and hopes to win a championship.