On Wednesday, the Big Ten Conference announced a revised conference-only football schedule with a kickoff of Sept. 3. It was the earliest start date set by a Power Five conference, which sent the message that the league’s presidents and first-year Commissioner Kevin Warren were confident that their COVID-19 protocols were safe enough to play football games in less than a month.
But by Sunday night, reports were surfacing that the Big Ten had changed course and was now pressuring other Power Five conferences to join it in canceling the 2020 college football season, at least for the fall.