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Ohio State president ‘hopeful’ football can return sometime this fall
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New Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson is still hopeful that football can be played in some capacity in the B1G this fall. She recently spoke with NBC 4, saying she believes there is a path to still play sometime in the coming months.
Since late last week, the B1G has reportedly kicked around the idea of potentially starting its football season around Thanksgiving weekend. On Tuesday, it was reported that President Trump spoke with B1G commissioner Kevin Warren about potentially starting the season earlier.
While Johnson didn’t provide any specific dates, she still thinks playing sometime in the fall is possible.
“We want to make sure our athletes get a shot because they’ve worked really hard and they deserve a shot to play,” Johnson said. “At the same time, we want to make sure that they’re safe, so we’re doing our work, we’ll come back and I’m very hopeful that we’ll be playing football this fall.”
Ohio State was one of three B1G schools that voted to move forward with a fall football schedule. The other two were Nebraska and Iowa.
The B1G’s primary focus until recently was to implement a model to play football in the spring. However, with recent developments, it seems that other options may be on the table.
Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first reported on the Thanksgiving idea last week. On Tuesday, the Dan Patrick Show reported that Oct. 10 was a potential target date for the B1G to start the season.
A lot of questions still remain, but Johnson hasn’t ruled fall out just yet.
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