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Big Ten Cancels Football, Fall Sports For 2020
Wednesday, August 12, 2020

(UNDATED) – There will be no fall sports for the Big Ten Conference in 2020.

Big Ten conference presidents and chancellors voted Tuesday to postpone all fall sports seasons, including football, amid the coronavirus pandemic with the hopes of playing in the spring. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren told the media Tuesday evening that when the conference released its schedule only six days ago, he reiterated the season might not happen, a message he has been consistent with.

Warren said the decision was based on the uncertainty that still surrounds the coronavirus pandemic. He says it's a combination of where the conference is in their testing, where they are in rapid testing and how is contact tracing actually defined. Warren says they have incredible policies and procedures in place at the schools. He says people are doing the best they possibly can, but when you go from the acclimation period to getting ready to put on pads and contact, and you look at the overall numbers during this global pandemic as far as caseloads, they have not decreased, they have gone up.

Later on Tuesday, Pac-12 presidents and chancellors followed the Big Ten's lead and also voted to postpone the conference's fall sports season, including football.

In making its decision, the Big Ten said it relied on the medical advice and counsel of the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.

Officials with the ACC and SEC have indicated they plan to proceed with sports this fall, but it's unclear whether the Big Ten's decision will change those plans. As for the Big 12, it's not entirely clear what the conference's intentions are, as some of its member schools seem to be divided on whether to play this fall or try to go in the spring.

Besides football, other sports affected are men's and women's cross country, field hockey, men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball.

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