Big Ten Mayors Warn Of Coronavirus Spread From College Football

EVANSTON, IL — Mayors of Big Ten Conference college towns signed an open letter to conference officials "humbly" asking for changes to plans for the upcoming college football season.

Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty and the 11 other municipal leaders issued the joint statement Tuesday urging conference leaders to consider a request from county and city health officials to finalize guidelines for the season that take the coronavirus positivity rates of local communities into account.

"We know the history of football games within our cities. They generate a lot of activity, social gatherings and the consumption of alcohol," they said. "These activities within our communities have also been associated with an increased spread of COVID-19."

Public health officials from Big Ten towns met last week to discuss metrics that could be used to determine when it is safe to play, according to the letter.

"Please include the communities where you will be holding games in your conversations and assign a metric to this that is similar to what has already been laid out for your teams," the mayors requested. "We ask that you work with local and county health officials in these communities to define a population positivity rate, where hosting a football game that would bring increased activity into the community is no longer safe to do."

The mayors also asked conference officials to release schedules and game times as early as possible and "make it a priority to host less or no games that take place in the evening or late afternoon, as these start times are associated with increased activity."

The majority of Week 1 matchups are scheduled for evening or late afternoon. Friday's season opener is set to begin at 7 p.m. in Madison, Wisconsin. Saturday's schedule includes noon kickoffs in East Lansing, Michigan, and Columbus, Ohio, as well as games scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in West Lafayette and Bloomington, Indiana, and at 6:30 p.m. in Evanston and Minneapolis.

The Big Ten Conference first released a schedule and testing protocol Aug. 5. Then on Aug. 11, officials announced the season would be canceled due to the coronavirus, with only leaders of the University of Iowa and University of Nebraska supporting going ahead with playing.

University chiefs reversed course again last month, voting unanimously Sept. 15 to resume play with a comprehensive coronavirus testing scheme. Conference officials said data from extensive cardiac testing of players would be used to aid research into the effects of COVID-19.

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More than 24,000 coronavirus cases have been detected at Big Ten Conference schools, with Penn State and Ohio State reporting the largest number of cases and Northwestern University the fewest, according to a compilation of data on COVID-19 in the conference.

Due to its saliva-based comprehensive testing program, the University of Illinois has conducted more than five times as many tests as most other Big Ten schools and had the lowest positivity rate in the conference. As of Wednesday, average coronavirus positivity rates are highest at the University of Minnesota and University of Nebraska.