Reports tonight say they're going to shut down Big Ten football sometime this week.

It seems inevitable. 160,000+ dead, no uniformity on masking, players balking over safety concerns.

Fans are going to be upset, but for the first time in a long time, schools are ignoring the fans and are doing what makes most sense for the short term health of their students, and the long term health of their football programs.

I think the money issue is on the risk management/litigation end. Is there an insurance company willing to insure a university or conference against a wrongful death or disability claim in the event that a player, coach, school employee, referee, etc became sick or died because a school played a game requiring extreme physical exertion and closeness during a pandemic? And what of the potential fallout after such an incident? Every one of those university presidents would be forced out if a death occurred.

Most of these universities have medical schools within their academic programs. And each of them is recommending adherence to CDC guidelines. It would seem hypocritical to suggest that football programs are exempt from behavior expected of all other students and staff.