The Big Ten conference announced this morning it has suspended ALL organized team activities until June 1, 2020, and will then re-evaluate the situation at that time.
"This is an additional measure to the previously announced cancellation of all conference and non-conference competitions through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year," the league wrote.
"The Conference also has previously announced a moratorium on all on- and off-campus recruiting activities for the foreseeable future. The Big Ten Conference will continue to use this time to work with the appropriate medical experts and institutional leadership to determine next steps relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The main priority of the Big Ten Conference is to ensure the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty, fans and media as we continue to monitor all developing and relevant information on the COVID-19 virus."
The Big Ten's announcement this morning doesn't come as a surprise, especially when considering Michigan's students have been away from campus since March and virtual commencements took place this past weekend, with the fall semester not set to kick off until September.
On top of that, team collegiate sports as a whole see — by far — the least amount of action during the summer months. So what does the Big Ten's announcement mean for the ever approaching collegiate football season?
“We need our campuses to be open first and foremost before we can bring our student-athletes to campus in order to play a game,” Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel said last Thursday.
“These are not professionals and I don’t treat them way. They may drive ticket sales and people interested coming and sitting in our stadium — we have the largest stadium in the country, and I'm proud of that.
“If it’s about the safety of our student-athletes versus filling that stadium, I’d rather it sit empty until we’re in the position to make sure our student-athletes, coaches and fans are safe, and their health is primary.
"We’ll figure it out just like everybody is doing on the financial side, but we can’t play games with peoples’ health and safety.”
U-M's football team is scheduled to kick off the 2020 season at Washington on Sept. 5, with the home opener set to occur a week later on Sept. 12 against Ball State.
TheWolverine's John Borton has been monitoring discussions that have been taking place behind the scenes over the past month, noting in his most recent update that two options U-M has discussed include playing a nine-game slate with the non-conference portion eliminated, or a six-game league schedule against divisional foes only.
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