The ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC remain the only Power 5 conferences standing as the Big 10 announced its decision to postpone sports this fall.
“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 release from the conference. “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.
“We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”
According to the press release, the conference will look to move all fall sports seasons to the spring. The status of winter and spring sports will “continue to be evaluated.”
Representatives from each of the five conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the potential of the season, and reports that the Big 10 and Pac-12 would be the first to cancel the season soon swirled.
Despite a push from athletes across the nation to continue with the season, the Big 10 became the first to forego the 2020 season.
On Aug. 5, the conference announced it would move football to a 10-game conference-only schedule for the 2020 football season, slated to begin Labor Day weekend. Now, the earliest anyone can expect to watch Big 10 football or other sports is 2021.
John Canzano from The Oregonian reported that the Pac-12 will announce its decision to follow the Big 10’s lead at 3 p.m. CT.