No Rutgers football this fall as Big Ten votes to cancel season, hopes to play in spring

It's official: Rutgers won't be playing football in 2020.

The Big Ten voted Tuesday to postpone the fall season and it will explore the possibility of playing in the spring.

“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” league commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement.

“As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall."

No decisions for winter and spring sports have been made yet.

The conference's plans started to crystallize Monday when reports surfaced the Big Ten was preparing to cancel the season, but the league didn't publicly address the matter.

Now it has made its decision despite a chorus of players and coaches from around the league, including Ohio State's Ryan Day, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Penn State's James Franklin, voicing their support of trying to play the season this fall.

Ultimately, the Big Ten presidents decided it wouldn't be prudent to play as COVID-19 surges in many parts of the country.

Several FCS conferences previously announced they were canceling football season, and then UConn, which plays an independent schedule, became the first FBS school to come to the same d... (Read more)

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