The Big Ten football season will resume on the weekend of October 24th, the conference has confirmed. This follows several weeks of speculation about when the season would actually begin.
The heads of all the 14 member universities voted for the fall season to begin again at the end of October. The conference announced that all members have confidence in the latest medical information and are reassured by the daily testing that will take place. When the decision was taken in August to postpone the season, only three members were in favor of the season going ahead, so this represents a major turnaround in thinking.
The eight-week schedule will be released soon but this will be modified to only feature in-conference games. Each team will play eight games in eight weeks before the Big Ten championship game takes place on December 19th. This means that the season will be finished in time for the Selection Day for the College Football Playoff which takes place on December 20th.
The games will be held on campus throughout the season but no fans will be in attendance. A plan is being worked on that will enable the families of players and staff to attend games, both home and away.
The daily testing program will begin on September 30th. Every player will be tested and the results will be recorded before every practice and game. If an individual player tests positive, then he will need to wait 21 days before returning to the competition. The whole team must pause competition and practice if more than 5% of the them test positive.