The conference is in the early stages of a complicated process that also involves broadcast partners and possible neutral site venues, but could have a season starting as soon as Thanksgiving weekend.
One option includes playing games at domed stadiums across the Midwest, including in Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Detroit.
A growing number of analysts and insiders are reaching a startling conclusion: The scrapping of the college Division I football season actually might come with as many silver linings as drawbacks—maybe even more.
Fred Glass, 61, will become a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, where he will operate a general business law practice, while also handling matters related to higher education, employment, government matters, sports, media and entertainment.
The NCAA and the Indiana Sports Corp. both said they’re still planning for the Final Four on its original dates. Some sports business experts wonder whether the college basketball tournament could benefit from a “bubble” strategy like the NBA or NHL.
The Division I Council made a similar decision for spring-sport athletes who had their seasons cut short by the coronavirus.
The cancellation of the fall season promises to wallop businesses who count on those fall weekends for survival, and the economic impact likely will measure in the tens of millions in many of the small towns across the sprawling conference.
The highest tier of Division I football, the Bowl Subdivision, is not affected because it is not overseen by the NCAA.
Purdue University Head Football Coach Jeff Brohm said he believes football can be played safely in the spring and again next fall if university presidents and medical teams agree.
Exactly when a season could be played in the spring is likely to be determined by the status of the pandemic and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Would anybody in college sports want football treading on basketball’s main event?
The broadcast rights for football generate millions of dollars for the Big Ten Conference’s athletic departments, and schools across the country have projected major deficits in the wake of the pandemic.
The Mountain West on Monday became the second major conference to call off fall sports, joining the Mid-American Conference. The Big Ten and Pac-12 could soon follow suit.
The decision came a day after the Mid-American Conference became the first among 10 leagues that play at the highest tier of Division I college football to cancel fall sports.
The commissioners of the Big Ten and other Power Five conferences met Sunday to discuss mounting concern about whether a college football season can be played in a pandemic.
Terre Haute’s Duane Klueh remembers long, cold road trips and teams that pinched pennies to pay the bills.
Within hours of the board’s announcement, the Division III presidents council canceled fall sports championship and determined they will not be made up in the spring.
The Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis remains scheduled for Dec. 5 but could be moved to as late as Dec. 19.
More than two dozen Division I conferences had urged the NCAA’s highest governing body to delay a decision on fall championships until a majority of leagues determine whether to hold regular-season competition.
The NCAA football oversight committee is asking the association’s Board of Governors to avoid making a decision soon on whether to conduct fall championships, “so that conferences and schools may have ample latitude to continue to evaluate the viability of playing football this fall.”
The NCAA handed down its latest guidelines for playing through a pandemic while also sounding an alarm: The prospect of having a fall semester with football and other sports is looking grim.
