Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren explains decision to cancel fall football season

The Big Ten released a statement about canceling the 2020 football season.

The Big Ten made the news official Tuesday afternoon by canceling the 2020 fall football season. In fact, all fall sports are canceled due to the risks associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Big Ten coaches and players were pushing to play and one option was to simply delay the season. Instead, the conference canceled it all not long after releasing a schedule for the season. A formal statement was put out Tuesday afternoon.

The statement from the Big Ten makes it clear why they postponed the football season until the spring

The statement from Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren details how the conference came to the conclusion that the medical risks were too great to play any season.

"“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. “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.”"

Plenty of fans are upset by the news, as are players and coaches. Citing the safety of everyone involved is a fair reason to cancel the season. However, there will be plenty of criticism for how this was handled. The conference had programs put precautions in place and even put out a schedule for the season. It is hard to imagine what changed the past week or so other than the Big Ten had to stop pretending everything was fine.

Simply hoping everything would figure itself out seemed to be the initial plan. COVID-19 never went away and the result is a rushed decision to cancel the season. It is unlikely that the doctors consulted on this decision changed what they said between July and now.

This decision is a bummer for everyone involved. No one is excited to cancel the season. Now the focus shifts to what other major conferences will do this fall. If certain teams play, we could see transfers on the horizon.

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