Big Ten Conference Postpones Fall Sports Season, Will 'Evaluate' Possibility Of Playing In Spring
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (KDKA) - Penn State won't have a football season this fall. The Big Ten Conference is postponing the 2020-21 fall sports season.
The season along with all regular-season contests and Big Ten championships and tournaments are canceled "due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic."
The fall sports affected are men's and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball.
The Big Ten says it is continuing to evaluate options, "including the possibility of competition in the spring."
"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," said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren in a press release.
"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.
You can read the conference's full statement online.
Penn State coach James Franklin took to social media Monday night to call on the Big Ten Conference to avoid canceling the football season.
"While we all agree there is much uncertainty; the best decision right now isn't to cancel the season. I implore the Big Ten to consider all possibilities to preserve college football this fall," Franklin said on his verified Twitter account.
"Let's delay, seek clarity, build the safest environment for our guys and make the best decision," he added.
Franklin also said he supports "our student-athletes' desire to play this fall & will exhaust all options for them."
