Thursday September 17th Local Sports

IOWA CITY — Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the return of Big Ten football is welcomed news for the players and coaches. Ferentz made an appearance on the Big Ten Network.

Ferentz is happy to get some clarity.

Protocols will include daily antigen testing for players and coaches and a positive test will sideline a player for three weeks. Positivity rates for a team or local community could force a team to shutdown for a week. Commissioner Kevin Warren

Warren and the conference have been heavily criticized after cancelling the fall season just days after it released a revised schedule in August and several coaches have been vocal about the lack of communication from the top.

Warren says the ability to test daily was a big step in bringing back the football season.

An eight game regular season will begin the weekend of October 24 and will end with a ninth game against the other division the week of December 19th. It will include the Big Ten Championship game. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez led the scheduling effort.

Alvarez says the schedule should be completed by the end of the week and teams will have plenty of time to get ready for the season.

The Big Ten’s plan to play football this fall also includes trying to save lives in the future. The conference is setting up a cardiac registry to study the effects COVID-19 has on athletes’ hearts. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren says the registry will help all students along with surrounding communities and the entire nation. Dr. Leslie Cooper chairs the cardiovascular department at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. He says the registry can potentially close a gap in research when it comes to the new coronavirus.

 

 

UNDATED (AP) — The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball seasons will begin Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving. The Division I Council voted to push the start date back from the originally scheduled Nov. 10 as one of several precautions against the spread of coronavirus. The later start date coincides with the decision most schools made to send students home from Thanksgiving until January out of concern about a potential late-fall and early-winter flareup of COVID-19. Closed campuses could serve as a quasi bubble for players and provide a window for nonconference games. The maximum number of regular-season games has been reduced from 31 to 27. The minimum number of games for consideration for the NCAA Tournament was cut from 25 to 13.

 

 

CHICAGO (AP) — Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano each hit a two-run homer, and the Minnesota Twins denied the Chicago White Sox a chance to clinch their first playoff berth in 12 years with a 5-1 victory Wednesday night. Eddie Rosario also went deep and Minnesota pitchers retired their final 18 batters against the AL Central leaders. Chicago, which had won six straight and nine of 10, had an opportunity to secure its first postseason spot since 2008 with a win and a Mariners loss. Seattle played later against the San Francisco Giants. After dropping the first two in the four-game series, the second-place Twins moved within two games of Chicago in the division standings.