Wednesday morning the Big Ten Conference pulled off quite possibly the best reverse play of the year, unanimously choosing to play football, as well as all other sports, this fall.
#WeAre pic.twitter.com/HcxAM0A1DS
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) September 16, 2020
This decision comes after previously voting to delay the fall season to the spring Aug. 12 much to the dismay of players, coaches, parents and many fans, including President Donald Trump. It also comes on the heels of many colleges and college towns seeing a major uptick in Covid-19 cases with students back on campus.
The Big Ten season will now begin the weekend of Oct. 23 and 24 and for football, teams will have an 8-game schedule with the ninth game being a seeded game between both the east and west divisions.
Simply put, there will be a battle between the two best teams in the Big Ten and the two worst teams on the same weekend. It's an early Christmas present, who wouldn't love to watch Rutgers or Maryland taking on Illinois or Northwestern late in December?
The last week of the season will fall the week of Dec. 19
Along with the schedule, the Big Ten also announced those affiliated with each team such as student-athletes, coaches, trainers as well as any individuals on the field for practices and games are required to go through daily antigen testing.
Should a Penn State student-athlete test positive for Covid-19 the earliest they will be able to return to action is 21 days following their positive test. There will also be a Chief Infection Officer at each school who will make decisions about the continuation of practices and competitions determined by the team positivity rate and population positivity rate which is based on a seven-day rolling average.
Those decisions will be based on whether a team is in a green, orange or red scenario. Green/Green and Green/Orange allows the team to continue practicing and competing in games. With an Orange/Orange or Orange/Red diagnosis, teams must proceed with caution and enhance Covid-19 prevention.
The team positivity rate is determined by the number of positive tests divided by the total number of tests administered. The green rate is equal to zero to two-percent positivity, orange is two to five-percent and red is five-percent or higher.
The population positivity rate is determined by the number of positive individuals divided by the total population at risk. The green rate for this is zero to 3.5 percent, orange 3.5 to 7.5 percent and red is greater than 7.5 percent.
Penn State and all Big Ten teams will begin their daily antigen testing Sept. 30 and eventually all Big Ten sports will require testing protocols before competition can resume or begin.