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Desmond Howard, Lee Corso support B1G’s decision to postpone
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Although the B1G has come under a lot of heat over the last month for deciding to pull the plug on fall football on August 11, not everyone thinks it was the wrong choice to make. Even two College GameDay analysts are siding with the conference’s presidents and commissioner Kevin Warren.
On the first production of ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday, both Desmond Howard and Lee Corso thought the B1G made the right move on the season.
It’s a stance Howard has taken since the announcement was made nearly one month ago.
“You can’t throw a blanket statement on it because we have medial experts on both sides arguing both points,” Howard said. “We’ve seen doctors from big universities make statements and then start to retract those statements. Personally, I have two sons. They aren’t in college right now, but if they were, I would err on the side of caution and probably do what (Big Ten commissioner) Kevin Warren and Larry Scott with their conferences. I would tell them they couldn’t play.
“You’re dealing with too much medical uncertainty at this point. Too many unknown health risks. When you look at the numbers. It’s really interesting that COVID-19 affects black Americans at unusually high and disproportionate rate than it does other parts of the country. Sixty kids have opted out and 80 percent of those kids are black. I would’ve erred on the side of caution with my sons and we would’ve sat this one out.”
Corso, who hasn’t said much on the matter during the offseason. However, he did agree with Howard’s take, citing the uncertainties that remain and the seriousness of the virus as a reason to back away from football.
If it was up to Corso, he says he would wait until closer to spring to play.
“Because of the what ifs … basically there’s a number of people, thousands of people (affected by COVID-19) … I would not play football until February 2021,” Corso said. “The National Football League season would be over with an emphasis on college football. I’d play an abbreviated schedule and maybe in 10 weeks begin again. I’d rather err on safety than chance.
“The virus is very serious and I take it that way.”
The B1G was the first Power 5 conference to postpone fall sports in 2020. In total, four FBS leagues have opted to back away from college football this fall — the MAC, Mountain West and Pac-12 being the other three.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB