Don’t expect any of your favorite Big Ten sports teams to be back in any sort of action in the month of April. On Friday afternoon, the Big Ten announced it will continue suspending all organized team activities through May 4 before re-evaluating the state of affairs in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is an additional measure to the previously announced cancellation of all conference and non-conference competitions through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year,” a statement from the Big Ten said on Friday. “The Conference also has previously announced a moratorium on all on- and off-campus recruiting activities for the foreseeable future.”
As far as football is concerned, that effectively keeps spring football from becoming a possibility around the conference until May, which makes it seem very unlikely any Big Ten school will get any more spring practices in this year. The Big Ten previously suspended all activities until April 6.
It has seemed unlikely spring football will be able to continue in the Big Ten and every other conference for weeks now as the sports world and beyond continues to adhere to updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control have stressed the urgent need to practice social distancing. And with the United States continuing to see more and more cases and deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, college football is far down on the list of priorities right now.
With the loss of so many spring football practices, coaches are working hard to figure out how to best prepare their respective programs for the upcoming 2020 season, assuming there even is one (one notable college football analyst would be shocked if we do see a football season). One idea that has been mentioned as a possibility would be the addition of more practices or activities during the summer, similar to NFL OTAs and minicamps.
But first, let’s just get this virus under control. If that means locking the country down, as Penn State head coach James Franklin would consider, so be it.