ESPN: Big Ten prepared to ‘pull the plug’ on fall season

The Big Ten’s fall football season could be postponed as early as Monday, according to a ESPN report.

The news comes just a day after the Mid-America Conference (MAC) canceled its fall season, moving it to spring 2021.

Saturday morning, the Big Ten announced that football teams cannot progress to full padded practices until further notice.

Here’s the news from ESPN:

Commissioners of the Power 5 conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday, as there is growing concern among college athletics officials that the upcoming football season and other fall sports can’t be played because of the coronavirus pandemic, sources told ESPN.

Several sources have indicated to ESPN that Big Ten presidents, following a meeting on Saturday, are ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season, and they wanted to gauge if commissioners and university presidents and chancellors from the other Power 5 conferences — the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — will fall in line with them.

Of course, Illinois’ revised schedule was announced last week. The Illini are scheduled to open up the season against Ohio State at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 3.

Several Illini players said they want to play Sunday night, after four days of fall practices.