Yahoo Lifestyle Minnesota QB Tanner Morgan: Big Ten did what was right in postponing fall football season
While the Big Ten is getting a lot of blowback after deciding to postpone the 2020 football season a week ago, it does have the support of Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan.
Morgan said Monday that he believed the Big Ten made the right decision to postpone all fall sports to the spring of 2021.
“Everybody involved from our side at the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten, they did what was right and what they thought was right for player health and safety and staff health and safety,” Morgan said.
The Big Ten was the first Power Five conference to postpone the fall sports season. Not long after it made the decision because of player health and safety reasons, the Pac-12 followed suit. Four of the 10 conferences at the top level of college football have postponed their seasons, while Power Five conferences like the ACC, Big 12 and SEC are still moving forward with fall football seasons.
“I commend them for being the conference that actually put player health and safety first,” Morgan said of the Big Ten.
Morgan is entering his senior season and emerged as one of the better quarterbacks in college football in 2019. He threw for 3,253 yards and 30 touchdowns with only seven interceptions.
He was set to team with Rashod Bateman to form one of the best quarterback-wide receiver combinations in college football. But Bateman opted out of the 2020 season before the Big Ten’s decision to prepare for the NFL draft.
Morgan’s words are a contrast with those of Ohio State QB Justin Fields, a player who has even gone so far as to create a petition asking for the Big Ten to reconsider its decision not to play football in the fall. While the Pac-12 released the medical assessment it consulted when making its postponement decision, the Big Ten hasn’t gone into detail about its health and safety reasons.
Monday, Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said she was “unclear” on if there was a vote among conference members to postpone the season. After the decision was made last week, Minnesota president Joan Gabel said there was not a vote “per se” after extensive discussions among Big Ten university leaders.
“We didn’t vote per se, it’s a deliberative process where we came to a decision together and I absolutely support the decision we came to,” Gabel said.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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