The Big Ten's potential delayed football season has been referred to as a lot of things in recent weeks. A spring season. A winter season. A second-semester season. It's been referred to as unlikely to happen at all.Â
What if it was actually a late fall season? that the league's coaches want to consider a plan that would begin Thanksgiving weekend and include at least eight games. Depending on that exact setup, it would mean playing approximately through the end of January.Â
It's important to note that the report is about an idea being circulated among the league's coaches.Â
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Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos is part of the subcommittee of athletic directors that are working through scheduling options, and he told the Journal Star last week that two ideas include starting as soon as possible after Jan. 1 and also starting after the Super Bowl, which is Feb. 7.Â
"We're looking and everything at this point would be after the first of the year," Moos said Aug. 20. "How it unfolds, there's still debate. We had the coaches on today. (The question is), what window? Here are the things you've got to look at: Who are you going to be competing with? If you start in January, you've got the NFL playoffs. ... The next thing is, what do the television partners want to do?"Â
Moos outlined the challenges of playing any number of games after Jan. 1, particularly later into February, March and April, which include injury risk, overall workload for players in terms of having two seasons in one calendar year and more.Â
Moos also said he didn't think a decision would be made on what the schedule looks like until "well into" September.Â
UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green talked through his own hypothetical about deciding to play football later this fall during a radio interview last week and cited developments in rapid-return COVID-19 testing as one of the reasons he thought it was at least possible, though unlikely.Â
"This would be a game-changer for us," said Green, who is the only publicly known member of the Big Ten's Council of Presidents and Chancellors to vote against postponing the season. "If the FDA and the CDC recognize this is a valid individual testing mechanism, where now you can actually make that work. And you can make it work regularly and you have the availability of the tests and so forth and so on."
The Big Ten and first-year commissioner Kevin Warren have faced push back and criticism ever since, including a lawsuit filed by eight Nebraska players who want the decision overturned.
Any plan will need the approval of university presidents and chancellors, and the Big Ten will only play if certain benchmarks related to the coronavirus — such as transmission rates, testing capacity and availability, and testing accuracy — are met in each of the 11 states that are home to the league's 14 schools.
“If they are met, that’s when they’ll get back,†a source told The Associated Press.
Several coaches, including Ohio State's Ryan Day, have already said the sooner the Big Ten can start a delayed season the better. Day has endorsed starting in early January and that is being considered, the person said.
One option includes playing games at domed stadiums across the Midwest, including in Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Detroit, another person with knowledge of the discussions told AP on condition of anonymity.
The person said using neutral sites could help broadcast partners televise the games and help avoid potential complications of playing through winter weather.