The things we will miss from Big Ten sports being shut down this fall
While we can all be sure that the Big Ten’s decision to shut down sports this fall was made with the best of intentions, it nevertheless came as a major disappointment to participants and fans.
Despite league officials expressing the hope that competition could be moved to spring, that seems extraordinarily unlikely given the myriad of logistical hurdles such a plan would entail, especially for football.
There are many things we’ll miss out on by not getting to watch the Big Ten for the rest of 2020, but here are a few of note.
Seeking hardware in Columbus
The case can certainly be made that Ohio State will lose the most by not being able to play football this year. Yes, we know, fans of a certain school to the north would respond with a grumbled, “Cry me a river.” But the Buckeyes, coming off a playoff appearance and voted No. 2 in the preseason Amway Coaches poll, were on the short list of national title contenders for most prognosticators, and quarterback Justin Fields was widely considered a top Heisman contender after amassing 3,757 yards of total offense and accounting for 51 touchdowns last season.
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Trophy games and long-running rivalries
Ohio State-Michigan is the most intense of the league’s many rivalries, but there are plenty of other traditional showdowns we won’t see in 2020, including some of college football’s longest-lasting and most-popular trophy games.
The battle for Paul Bunyan’s Ax between Minnesota and Wisconsin is the most notable of these. The two teams have met on the gridiron a total of 129 times, the most played series in the Bowl Subdivision, and have squared off every year since 1907.
We’d be remiss, of course, if we didn’t also give a nod to our favorite trophy, the bronze pig known as Floyd of Rosedale that goes to the winner of Minnesota and Iowa.
Other notable NFL prospects
Fields was undoubtedly the most recognizable player in the league heading into the 2020 campaign, but he’s far from the only standout with a possible NFL future we might not get to see in a college uniform again. We already knew Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, Minnesota receiver Rashad Bateman and Purdue all-purpose threat Rondale Moore were not going to risk playing in the fall anyway. But a number of upperclassmen who were intending to take the field will also be missed. Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth would have been a strong candidate for the John Mackey Award. Nico Collins averaged nearly 20 yards per reception as a junior for Michigan last year. Rising senior Paddy Fisher, a do-everything linebacker at Northwestern who reminded many of his coach, Pat Fitzgerald, was ready to battle it out with the likes of Wisconsin’s Jack Sanborn and Michigan State’s Antjuan Simmons for all-league honors.
Volleyball
Keep in mind that the league’s decision applied to all other fall sports as well. The Big Ten is annually the deepest, most competitive conference in women’s volleyball. Four league teams – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and Penn State – finished in the top seven last year in the final AVCA coaches poll.
The Badgers, who played in the national title match last year, were returning first-team All-Americans Dana Rettke and Sydney Hilley.
The top programs often play in packed campus gyms with Big Ten Network providing a televised stage for some of the nation’s best players.