Penn State football will play this fall as Big Ten votes to begin season Oct. 23-24
After over a month of uncertainty, Big Ten football is back.
Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and ESPN first reported Wednesday morning that the conference will return to play in the fall of 2020. The league is set to start its season the weekend of Oct. 23-24, allowing for both a conference title game and a chance for its teams to make the College Football Playoff.
The decision was made through a unanimous vote by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors after adopting significant medical protocols, which include daily antigen testing, enhanced cardiac screening and a data-driven approach to making decisions about practice and competition. The information was presented to the COP/C over the weekend by the Big Ten Return to Competition Task Force.
Wednesday’s news comes over a month after the Big Ten announced it would postpone its fall sports season on Aug. 11, following an 11-3 vote from the COP/C.
“We are excited for our guys to have the opportunity to get back to action safely on Oct. 24,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said in a statement on Twitter. “These last several months have been riddled with uncertainty for our student-athletes, but they have handled it with class and dignity. Our guys have remained relentless in following our COVID-19 protocols and in their preparations to be ready to play football.”
When the Big Ten decided to postpone fall sports in August, Penn State President Eric Barron was one of 11 university presidents and chancellors to vote against playing football this fall. Now, with the conference’s new COVID-19 testing protocols, he’s on board with the plan to return.
“Yesterday, I voted to move forward with fall sports,” Barron wrote in a blog post posted Wednesday morning. “I did so based on an extraordinary amount of effort by a Big Ten task force over the last month to create the necessary conditions for a COVID-free arena of play. Much has changed. Our new approach is data-driven and guided by a chief infection officer to be designated by each institution. Consistent and uniform testing will be ready for the entire Big Ten, managed by the conference, with point-of-care rapid antigen testing six to seven times a week with results ready at least four hours before every practice and game.”
In a news conference on the Big Ten Network on Wednesday following the conference’s announcement, the Return to Competition Task Force — consisting of Commissioner Kevin Warren, Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips and Ohio State football head physician James Borchers — answered questions from reporters on a variety of topics.
To give every team an opportunity to play at least nine games, Alvarez said the Big Ten will follow what he called an “eight-plus-one” schedule. This will feature eight regular games, followed by a ninth cross-divisional game for each team to be played the same weekend (Friday, Dec. 18 and Saturday, Dec. 19) as the Big Ten Championship Game.
Divisional standings will determine those cross-divisional matchups. As usual, the two East and West division leaders will play in the conference championship game, while teams in the East division will be matched with an opponent from the West division who is in the same place in the standings.
The Big Ten will release teams’ schedules later this week, Alvarez said.
Barbour, who serves as a medical co-chair on the Return to Competition Task Force, said there will be no tickets sold for Big Ten games this year. The only fans potentially allowed in stadiums will be family members of players and other team members — but even that’s no guarantee.
“We are looking to see what we can do on a campus-by-campus basis to accommodate the families of our student-athletes, both home and away, as well as the families of staff,” Barbour said. “But as a conference, we’ve made a decision — no public sale of tickets.”
It may not feel like a traditional Big Ten football season in many senses, but those within Penn State’s program — and at other programs throughout the conference — are more than happy there will be games this fall.
“We would like to thank Eric Barron and Sandy Barbour for their continued support and efforts in helping us return,” Franklin’s statement read. “We are so appreciative of the work the Big Ten’s Return to Competition Task Force put in to give us a safe path to playing football this fall. We are also thankful the presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten considered the information presented and voted for the safe return to play.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 9:46 AM.
