Is the Big 10 going to play or not this fall? A lot of reports indicating the expectation is yes. But nothing official.
Co-author of study on myocarditis/covid says its not a reason to cancel sports.
LSU coach says “most” of his players have already had Covid. One way to limit the number of tests you run and how many games you could potentially miss.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/09/lsu-covid-19-most-of-team-ed-orgeron
That cardiologist from the Ohio State study is remarkably disingenuous. He says that they’ve tested all their athletes, and of the ones who tested positive, “only” 15% had myocarditis. His argument is that they’ll prevent the students with myocarditis from playing, good as far as it goes, which is about an inch.
He neglects to take into account that running a football program means creating covid cases that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. So having football means some athletes, and some other people associated with the football team, will get myocarditis, which will last an undetermined amount of time, possibly forever. The players will be tested for heart problems, but the coaches, trainers and others won’t be.
Moreover, Ohio State is, responsibly, doing heart testing for all its covid positive athletes. Are other schools? Is LSU? Most of the players at LSU, we’re told, have already tested positive. How many have had heart evaluations? Have any had heart evaluations? Or are they just letting them play?
Test that was part of that study is one part of an approach to athletics. Rapid testing would also be a part of it (NFL announced Sunday that all of its players and on field coaches were tested Saturday with no positives). Rapid tests dramatically reduce the need/significance of contact tracing. Reduce risks to others on the team and staff as well.
What other conferences do is up to them. Just like different colleges are taking different approaches.
Air Force academy announced yesterday they will play for the Commander in Chief’s trophy, so Army and Navy and then maybe one more. Then they’ll stop until the Mountain West conference plays in the spring.
I think that’s weird to have 2 seasons.
Looks like the BIG is back starting late October.
Here’s some details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/16/big-ten-football-resumes/
Will be interesting if other conferences follow.
If you don’t have/want a Washington Post subscription:
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29897305/sources-big-ten-announce-october-return
From Big 10 release:
Not sure what population they are referring to in the second part of the test. Team positivity is clear (though does it include coaches/staff?). Maybe team is just the players and population includes coaches, staff, trainers, etc.?
Those are details I don’t need. 
The details that I do need is when is the Michigan-Ohio State game gets played. And now D18 may stay back East until all homes games are played, which is unfortunate.
They moved the Ohio State-Michigan game up in the schedule with the idea it would be more likely to be played if scheduled early. With rapid daily testing maybe there is less of a concern about that and The Game goes back to the last game of the regular season?
I think what’s going on with the Big 10 is everyone who is on the field, players, trainers, and coaches, must be tested every day. The “test positivity rate” is the number of positives from that testing divided by the number of people testing.
The “population at risk” would be all the players, trainers and coaches, including those who weren’t going to practice that day because they were isolated for a previous positive test.
If I’m understanding this correctly, the requirement to halt competition would be basically never. A school would have to have an average of 5% of athletes testing positive for the last week in the daily tests. But once an athlete has tested positive (and their positive test has been confirmed) the team stops testing them!
So imagine Michigan tests everybody, and 2% are positive. Those people are isolated, and they are not tested again. Next day, another 2% of the remainder are positive. The rates for the next five days are 3%, 3%, 3%, 4%, 4%. Fifteen percent of the players/coaches/trainers have tested positive, but the team still isn’t in Red for test positivity.
I hope it’s the traditional Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I’ll take it even if it’s the 1st or last game of the season. Or anywhere in between.
After watching Coastal Carolina vs. Kansas last Saturday night, I’ll take any B!G game at this point, even a Rutgers game. 
Its been the last game of the regular season longer than it has been the Saturday after Thansgiving. Only been after Thansgiving for about 10 years. Was Saturday before until the conference added a bye week. Same time they added a conference title game I believe. Conference thought it was a disadvantage to have other conferences playing for 2 weeks after the Big 10 was done.
Mostly, but not entirely. There have been a few years in the 1990’s (1990 and 1995) and 2000’s (2001) where the game was played AFTER Thanksgiving. In 2012, it appears to have been played ON Thanksgiving (11/22).
In any case, 10 years +/-, is considered a “tradition” in my book.
I have been to the game when its in Columbus more times in my life than not (including every game since 2000). Definitely do not remember them playing on Thanksgiving. Per this article, the 2012 game was played on Saturday, November 24. Thanksgiving was the 22nd.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2012/11/24/3686138/ohio-state-michigan-2012-score-results
As a Michigan Alum, and a citizen of NJ, I’m really sorry that they caved when apparently UM, MSU, Maryland, and Rutgers had been opposed. Rightfully so.
I’m very disappointed, and wondering what the pressure was to get those votes so they could call it unanimous.
It sounded strange to me, to be playing on Thanksgiving since that’s been reserved for NFL teams, that’s why I used “appears.” I wasn’t trusting of my source material. But I didn’t want to spend alot of time on it.
If Barstool’s reporting is correct, Dylan McCaffrey must have lost the starting UMich QB job to Joe Milton, because he’s transferring. And Nico Collins signed with an agent and looks to be headed to the NFL draft.
Conference governance process seems to lack a lot of transparency. Lots of rumors but never quite sure what is true. Even official statements from schools/presidents are filled with marketing/spin. Tough to know.
Someone who doesn’t like the decision:
From the above mentioned article: “This is the Nebraska-ization of the Big Ten. Who would have thought that when Nebraska and Ohio State and a few of the league’s other squeakiest wheels started whining about missing out on football, the Big Ten presidents would buckle rather than stand up to them?”
Yup. That’s how I feel. Crushingly disappointed in my alma mater, when I know they know better. Almost worse than if it were one of those schools that don’t care. I guess it is one of those now.