Report: Power Five Conferences Set to Cancel 2020 Fall Season
According to multiple reports around the college football landscape, the Power Five conferences in the upcoming days will announce the 2020 college football season will be canceled.
On Sunday evening, news began to spread around Twitter that the 2020 college football season in the upcoming days would be canceled by the Power Five conferences due to safety concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde first reported the news just after 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, with the following tweet;
Sources: Attempts to salvage the fall 2020 college football season are all but over. “It’s gotten to a critical stage," one told SI. "I think all of us will be meeting with our boards in the coming days. We have work to do that is no fun.”
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) August 9, 2020
Forde’s colleague at Sports Illustrated Ross Dellenger would follow that up with the following tweet stating that the Big Ten is the first conference moving towards the decision but have been discussing with other Power Five conferences and there would be an expected uniform decision and announcement made late in the week. Multiple other outlets followed up reporting similar findings.
College football sources tell @SInow that the Big Ten is moving toward a decision to cancel the 2020 fall season, while engaging other Power 5 conferences on a uniform decision to be announced later this week. https://t.co/vT1JIQYHrC
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 9, 2020
The potential decision for the Power Five conferences doesn’t come as much of a shock considering the perceived perception of the way the conferences were moving regarding the season for the past few weeks. While the ACC and Big Ten both announced their new conference only schedules, both conferences made it clear that the season still was not a sure thing to happen.
This weekend on Saturday, potentially the most influential move at the FBS level was made when the MAC (Mid-American Conference) announced the decision that there would be no fall season in 2020. Becoming the first conference at the FBS level to announce their decision not to play this fall. Almost the entirety of the FCS, Division II, and Division III levels have already canceled fall sports.
Additionally, as the news started to spread across Twitter and social media, college football players unified with the #IWantToPlay hashtag. The major argument is that they all feel safe with their program’s safety standards and want to play this season. Some players have taken a bigger role than others such as Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Lawrence’s own major argument is that for many players, being inside the system that is in place with their respective programs is safer for the athletes than the lack of a system they would be in with a canceled season whether or not that may be at home or on a college campus this fall.
Either way, it’s hard to imagine at this juncture that the player’s feelings on the matter will make much a difference as for weeks now the move by the Power Five conferences felt inevitable. But for now, it will be a waiting game to see if the final nail for the 2020 season is in the coffin.