2020 Season Updates | HailToPurple.com

Aug. 10, 1:45 p.m. CDT-- BIG TEN IN TOTAL DISARRAY:

Either Dan Patrick's source is full of it, or the Big Ten is in total, no-holds-barred backpedal mode (I'm voting for #2). Multiple sources reported this afternoon that the Big Ten presidents did NOT vote on the fall season last night. The most recent report is that the Big Ten presidents will meet at 5:00 p.m. CDT today to make a "final" decision on the fate of the fall season. This move comes after a wild night and morning of blowback after initial reports had the Big Ten and Pac-12 gearing up to announce the cancellation of fall football.

The Big Ten itself has released no statement during the antics of the past two days. The NCAA, of course, remains in hiding, hoping the conferences work this out for themselves, so it doesn't have to make a real, actual decision.

Stay tuned. More fun to come...

Aug. 10, 8:45 a.m. CDT-- Dan Patrick is reporting that last night's Big Ten meeting featured a vote to cancel the season. Patrick reports that the vote was in favor, 12 to 2, with only Iowa and Nebraska voting to continue with the 2020 season.

Patrick further reports that both the Big Ten and the Pac-12 are expected to cancel the fall season on Tuesday.

Also, per Patrick:

* The ACC and Big 12 are "on the fence."
* The SEC, as expected, is plowing ahead and trying to get teams to join them for a season.

AUG. 10, 7:00 am CDT-- A group of Power 5 star players organized a "We Want to Play" social media campaign late Sunday night, responding to reports that the Big Ten conference had all but decided to scrap the 2020 season, and the other Power 5 conferences were mulling over their possible response.

The Big Ten has not made any formal decision, but media reports indicated that a decision could be hours away, and an announcement could come by Tuesday. It is likely that the Big Ten would have already announced the cancellation if the other Power 5 leagues had aligned with the Big Ten on Sunday.

AUG. 9, 7:00 pm CDT-- Per Darren Rovell, a Big Ten source stated tonight that "there's no path forward that medically is safe. Hope we can all realize this as the season should have been called a month ago. No decisions today."

The reason why there were no decisions tonight appears to be the Big Ten's need to have a cancellation announcment be unifform across the Power 5 conferences. There are several reasons why the conference would want the other four leagues to go along with cancellation: if there is a holdout conference (or conferences), there will likely be a flood of transfers to the teams still playing. If there Power 5 conferences act as one body, transfers are cut off. Also, the Big Ten-- and likely the other conferences-- likely want to prevent further attempts by the student players to organize. Cutting off the season now across the board possibly stops efforts by the players to unionize.

AUG. 9, 5:30 pm CDT-- Multiple stories are developing this afternoon. Adam Rittenberg at ESPN is reporting that yesterday's Big Ten presidents' call revealed that the "vast majority" of presidents favor cancellation. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is reported to have spoken Sunday midday with the other Power 5 commissioners to discuss the situation.

Pat Forde, writing about the broader situation with CFB in general, notes that "attempts to salvage the fall 2020 college football season are "all but over. 'It's gotten to a critical stage,' one [source] told SI. 'I think all of us will be meeting with our boards in the coming days. We have work to do that is no fun.'"

Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel released perhaps the most ominous message on Sunday afternoon: "Sources: Big Ten presidents and chancellors [are] scheduled to speak tonight to discuss the future of the season. Sentiment from the [Big Ten presidents'] call yesterday indicated that there was momentum at the presidential level to cancel fall sports. Unclear when a decision will come."