Big Ten and PAC-12 Officially Announce Postponement of Fall Sports

It's official. There will be no football, or other fall sports for Big Ten schools in 2020.

After reports surfaced yesterday the presidents of the 14 universities that make up the conference voted 12-2 in favor of cancelling the upcoming football season, which was scheduled to kick off in a few weeks, the conference made it official by releasing a statement through their website confirming the reports.

Citing "The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes," as their primary responsibility, the conference says 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" to help make the decision.

The decision applies to not only football, but to "men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball" as well.

While no official decision was announced, the statement did reference the possibility of those sports moving to the spring as the conference continues to monitor the ongoing pandemic.

Shortly after news broke of the Big Ten's decision, Stadium Nework's College Football reporter, Brett McMurphy tweeted the PAC-12, which includes USC, Oregon, and Stanford among others, has also decided to postponed fall sports due to the pandemic.

The focus now turns to the remaining Power 5 conferences. Will the SEC, ACC, or Big 12 follow suit and postpone or cancel their seasons as well? As of this writing, none of those conferences have made any official announcements, however according to a report from CBS Sports, SEC Commissioner, Greg Sankey appeared on Dan Patrick's radio show Tuesday morning and said the medical professionals they have been working with have told them they are good to "move forward" with their season, but also admitting that could change depending on how the data evolves over the next few weeks.

Much like everything involving the pandemic, there are a ton of questions, but very little answers. Only time will tell if college sports fans will get a chance to cheer for their favorite teams as the leaves change colors, and temperatures start to drop.

[Source: Big Ten / CBS Sports]