The Big Ten conference just made what we reported yesterday official and cancelled all fall sports:
ABC NEWS – The Big Ten college sports conference announced Tuesday it is postponing its 2020 fall season, which includes football, soccer, cross country and other sports.
“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”
The postponement applies to all fall sports, including men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. Decisions regarding winter and spring sports are still being evaluated, according to the statement.
Big Ten teams include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
The Pac-12 conference just followed suit and cancelled everything as well:
Breaking: The Pac-12 CEO group voted Tuesday to cancel fall sports, including football, and will look at options to play in the spring, first reported by Stadium and confirmed to ESPN. pic.twitter.com/qM5pV2pIGI
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 11, 2020
In case you are wondering, Pac-12 teams include California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC, and Utah.
So even if other conferences play, college football just won’t be the same this year without these two big conferences. In fact I suspect more will follow now that these two have bailed out.