The Big Ten said that the conference’s presidents and chancellors voted 11-3 in favor of postponing the season in a brief Monday. | Courtesy of Big Ten Conference
The result of the vote regarding fall sports in the Big Ten has been known since Aug. 11, but now the exact score is clear.
A written brief from the conference in response to an Aug. 27 lawsuit filed by eight Nebraska football players, questioning the Big Ten’s process, confirmed that a vote did occur, despite rumors that it did not, and that the threshold for approval for the cancelation was 60 percent, which the vote met with 78.6 percent.
One of the presidents involved in the voting was Ohio State President-elect Kristina M. Johnson. Athletic director Gene Smith said that both he and Johnson were against the decision made by the Big Ten.
“President-elect Johnson and I were totally aligned in our efforts to delay the start of the season rather than postpone,” Smith said in an Aug. 11 statement. “I am so grateful to her for all her efforts in support of our student-athletes and a traditional fall season.”
The conference also confirmed that it used multiple factors in the cancelation process, including counsel from the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.
“The Big Ten Conference continues to share the disappointment that student-athletes and families are feeling,” the brief reads. “The Big Ten Return to Competition Task Force will continue to be transparent as it actively considers it options to get back to competition when it is safe to play.”
