As pressure continues to mount on the Big Ten's decision-makers for pulling the plug on fall football, another option has been brought to the table by the league's coaches. Citing "two college football people familiar with the Big Ten," Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinelreports that Big Ten coaches are examining a season of at least eight games that would start during Thanksgiving week.
Few other details were offered, but this would the latest example of a potential modified season for the Big Ten, which announced earlier in August that it would cancel fall football while aiming for a 2021 reboot. Previously, it was reported that the league would examine several domed stadiums for a winter season. Purdue coach Jeff Brohm also outlined, in great detail, what a spring season could look like without infringing too much on the following season in fall 2021.
To be clear, coaches have no official pull on whether to play football, or when. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has also reiterated that the conference has no intentions of revisiting the possibility of playing football this fall. Given the league's concerns about safety and the overall uncertainty of conducting a season within the coronavirus pandemic, it would take a massive medical breakthrough for it to change its mind.
The Journal-Sentinel notes that the FDA recently granted emergency approval for a rapid antigen test designed by Abbott Labs, which would be inexpensive ($5), fast (15-minute turnaround time) and wouldn't need to be sent to a lab. Frequent, accurate, fast, and, if possible, cost-effective testing would be helpful for conferences trying to navigate this season without a true bubble. But it is also only one part of the equation.
The Big Ten is surely looking at all options for resuming football when it can. Starting up three months from now -- while possible, given that coaches wouldn't need more than about a month of practice -- would signal a massive, unexpected reversal of its hard-held stance.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...le-starting-thanksgiving-week-per-report/amp/
Few other details were offered, but this would the latest example of a potential modified season for the Big Ten, which announced earlier in August that it would cancel fall football while aiming for a 2021 reboot. Previously, it was reported that the league would examine several domed stadiums for a winter season. Purdue coach Jeff Brohm also outlined, in great detail, what a spring season could look like without infringing too much on the following season in fall 2021.
To be clear, coaches have no official pull on whether to play football, or when. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has also reiterated that the conference has no intentions of revisiting the possibility of playing football this fall. Given the league's concerns about safety and the overall uncertainty of conducting a season within the coronavirus pandemic, it would take a massive medical breakthrough for it to change its mind.
The Journal-Sentinel notes that the FDA recently granted emergency approval for a rapid antigen test designed by Abbott Labs, which would be inexpensive ($5), fast (15-minute turnaround time) and wouldn't need to be sent to a lab. Frequent, accurate, fast, and, if possible, cost-effective testing would be helpful for conferences trying to navigate this season without a true bubble. But it is also only one part of the equation.
The Big Ten is surely looking at all options for resuming football when it can. Starting up three months from now -- while possible, given that coaches wouldn't need more than about a month of practice -- would signal a massive, unexpected reversal of its hard-held stance.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...le-starting-thanksgiving-week-per-report/amp/
