Top officials from the top college athletic conferences held a meeting on Sunday to determine whether the upcoming college football season should be canceled.
“Commissioners of the Power 5 conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday, as there is growing concern among college athletics officials that the upcoming football season and other fall sports can’t be played because of the coronavirus pandemic,” ESPN reported. “Several sources have indicated to ESPN that Big Ten presidents, following a meeting on Saturday, are ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season, and they wanted to gauge if commissioners and university presidents and chancellors from the other Power 5 conferences – the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC – will fall in line with them.”
Sources told ESPN that while no decisions were made at the meeting, the “vast majority” of Big Ten presidents were prepared to possibly postpone the season until the spring.
Sports analyst Clay Travis responded to the news by writing, “If you are a college athlete and you want to play any sport this school year, you better use your voice on social media like never before right now. Because otherwise everything is getting shut down until this time next year.”
If you are a college athlete and you want to play any sport this school year, you better use your voice on social media like never before right now. Because otherwise everything is getting shut down until this time next year.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 10, 2020
Travis later responded to the notion that the schedule could be played in the spring, writing, “Football isn’t playing in the spring. Vaccine won’t be ready for mass distribution & that’s height of cold & flu season. If anything, danger will be greater then. Plus, no way teams are playing 20+ games in eight months.”
Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence tweeted why he believes not returning to play football carries its own health risk:
People are at just as much, if not more risk, if we don’t play. Players will all be sent home to their own communities where social distancing is highly unlikely and medical care and expenses will be placed on the families if they were to contract covid19 (1)
— Trevor Lawrence (@Trevorlawrencee) August 9, 2020
Players being safe and taking all of the right precautions to try to avoid contracting covid because the season/ teammates safety is on the line. Without the season, as we’ve seen already, people will not social distance or wear masks and take the proper precautions
— Trevor Lawrence (@Trevorlawrencee) August 9, 2020
Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell tweeted: “Players need to stand up as one voice and attempt to stop this postponement from happening. Yes they deserve to be paid but in lieu of that for now they deserve to be given a chance to play the sport theyve trained so hard for. The #WeWantToPlay hashtag should be everywhere. RT.”
Players need to stand up as one voice and attempt to stop this postponement from happening. Yes they deserve to be paid but in lieu of that for now they deserve to be given a chance to play the sport theyve trained so hard for. The #WeWantToPlay hashtag should be everywhere. RT. pic.twitter.com/um2yV7DOl9
— Mike Farrell (@mfarrellsports) August 10, 2020
The Mid-American Conference became the first conference to announce that it was postponing its schedule this fall.
“The Mid-American Conference (MAC) has announced the postponement of all scheduled fall contests, as well as MAC championships, due to continuing concerns related to the COVID-19 global pandemic,” the conference said in a statement. “The Council of Presidents unanimously voted to take this action with the health and safety of its student-athletes, coaches and communities as its top priority. It is the intention of the membership to provide competitive opportunities for the student-athletes in these sports during the spring semester of 2021.”
“The fall sports affected are men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball,” the conference added. “At this time, there have been no decisions made regarding winter sports.”
This story has been updated to include additional information.