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The Big Ten conference plans to kickoff a pandemic-era football season this fall, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Sources told the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday that a proposal has been approved for the league to play its 2020 season this fall. The starting date is unclear, but the latest proposal submitted to the Big Ten’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors featured an Oct. 17 kickoff,” Jeff Potrykus reports. “Each team is to play eight games in a nine-week window, with the league title game tentatively set for Dec. 19.”
The news comes as students are returning to Midwest campuses and increasingly spreading the coronavirus. That includes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where 2,160 students and 31 employees on an off campus had tested positive for the virus between Aug. 23 and Tuesday, according to the university’s dashboard.
The surge has prompted UW-Madison to switch to entirely online classes for at least two weeks, quarantine students in some dorms and cancel spring break.
Top Stories
Big Ten approves plan for 2020 football season this fall, possibly starting as early as Oct. 17 — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dane County bars and restaurants could be fined for violations of health order — Wisconsin State Journal
Emails show the meatpacking industry drafted an executive order to keep plants open — ProPublica
La Crosse area students frustrated, but not surprised, as COVID-19 cases increase — La Crosse Tribune
Wisconsin urging residents to enroll in special enrollment for health insurance — NBC 26
As COVID-19 cases surge, Gov. Tony Evers doesn’t rule out future statewide response, mask order extension — Wisconsin State Journal
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Quotable
“These students are not going home … So this is not an issue that’s going to resolve itself by simply telling all students at the university to go home. This is their home. They’re paying rent. It’s where they are. The more interactions we have with them, the more we can work with them, I think in many ways, the better off we are. That’s why we made the choices we made.”
— UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, defending the campus’ reopening to in-person instruction, as quoted by the Wisconsin State Journal
“I’m here today to ask you, to encourage you, to beg you and to warn you: that if we do not take this more seriously and we do not follow the safety measures, we are at risk of not making it through the whole semester. We might need to go all-remote at some time. I sincerely hope not. … Please avoid gathering together. You cannot hold parties. You cannot attend parties. You just can’t do it.”
— UW-Whitewater interim Chancellor Greg Cook in a Facebook message to students
Data to note
Here is a look at COVID-19 testing trends at UW-Madison, according to the university’s dashboard.
Resilient Wisconsin
People helping others and showing resilience during this time of anxiety. Send suggestions by tagging us on social media — @wisconsinwatch — or emailing us: tips@wisconsinwatch.org.
‘We just needed some extra happiness this year’: Wisconsin farmer plants 2 million sunflowers —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sheboygan’s Camp Evergreen adapts to COVID-19 pandemic — Sheboygan Press
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
