Despite a vocal last-minute push from players, fans, coaches and politicians this week, the Big Ten Conference ultimately decided to cancel the 2020 fall sports seasons with the hope of playing in the spring. It was the first Power 5 conference to do so in response to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the U.S.
This means there won’t be Ohio State-Michigan. The massive stadiums and parking lots across the Big Ten will remain empty. It also means that Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields — a presumptive top-2 pick in the upcoming NFL draft — will be faced with a decision to make about his football future.
Fields, who was one of the first players to share the #WeWantToPlay graphic, transferred to Ohio State from Georgia and became a Heisman Trophy finalist in his first season as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback.
But if conditions were to improve to the point where spring college football could happen, there’s almost no chance that Fields would be a part of a 2021 Ohio State spring season.
That would be asking Fields to play a full football season and then almost immediately go into the NFL draft workout process … and then jump right into a full NFL season all in the span of a few months.
From a health and money standpoint, doing so would make no sense for Fields. So, with the SEC, Big 12 and ACC evidently still weighing options for a season (Pac-12 is expected to follow the Big Ten), some thought Fields might explore a transfer (which raises an entirely new eligibility issue). Either way, it appears that Fields’ time at Ohio State is over.
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