The coronavirus pandemic led the Big Ten on Tuesday to postpone its football season until at least the spring semester, making the league the first of the sport’s marquee conferences to abandon plans for games this autumn. The decision, after weeks of announcements from smaller conferences and some individual schools that they would not play this fall, had potentially substantial implications for the rest of college sports. The move, about five months after the virus’s threat led to the cancellation of the N.C.A.A.’s basketball tournaments, extended the greatest crisis in the history of college athletics, a multibillion-dollar industry with extraordinary cultural clout. But, by stopping short of canceling the season outright and saying that it would evaluate the possibility of playing in the spring, the league offered a lifeline for some of the nation’s most celebrated athletic brands, many of which play in the Power 5 conferences. The Big Ten’s membership includes Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Maryland, among other schools.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2020 19:01 UTC