PDF: Jeff Brohm's spring proposal

With hopes for playing football this fall off the table--despite the pleas of players' parents and a player petition--the Big Ten turns its attention and hopes to playing in the spring of 2021.

When the Big Ten announced the postponement of the season last Tuesday, commissioner Kevin Warren didn’t guarantee a spring season would be played. But it is the hope that one can be crafted. In fact, days before the official decision was made by the Big Ten to postpone the fall season, reports surfaced the Warren preferred to play in the spring.

"Like our team and probably all teams across the Big Ten, I was very disappointed and very hurt by the decision," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said last week. "It was something we didn’t want to happen."

That is when Brohm jumped into action.

"After letting it kind of sink in, there are two things you can do: You can whine about it, or you can try to do something about it."

Brohm unveiled a nine-page plan for spring and fall of 2021 seasons last week, creating a buzz across Big Ten country. The Boilermaker boss also said the Big Ten office is working on its own plan.

Purdue A.D. Mike Bobinski is all for a spring season but knows many details need to be worked out: When it would start, how many games would be played, etc. ...

“Those are all the questions that need to be answered,” said Bobinski last Tuesday before Brohm announced his plan two days later. “And none of them can be answered right now. There are some geographic realities about where we live in the Big Ten … you have to define the spring in a way that you think you actually can get out there and play and it’s not a tundra. By that definition, it probably would have to be a March start in my mind.”

The Big Ten moved to a 10-game, league-only schedule earlier this month that featured five games at home and five on the road. The conference jettisoned its usual 12-game format in July, forgoing non-conference games in the hopes that a truncated schedule would be easier to manage and execute amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t know that we would have a 10-game season (if we play in the spring),” said Bobinski the day the Big Ten announced it was postponing the 2020 season. “Maybe it would be the nine that we currently had on the (original) schedule. But it could be 10. We just haven’t gotten deep enough at all into that conversation. We were so focused on trying to make the fall happen that this is now the next set of conversations that present themselves. I don’t have any clarity on that.”

Another big question looming ahead: If a spring 2021 season is played, will Big Ten schools turn around and play in fall 2021, as well? It may be asking too much of players to play two seasons in one calendar year. Health and safety could be concerns. Brohm's plan called for a fall 2021 season the heels of a spring 2021 campaign.

“The prospect of a season, then an offseason, then another season obviously presents a set of challenges that we’ve got to anticipate and think about and try to understand what that might really mean,” said Bobinski before Brohm revealed his plan last week. “Would it in fact cause both seasons to be shortened in some way? That’s not ideal in any sense of the word, but it’s certainly possible.”

These are unchartered waters. Brohm said he has shared his plan with his Big Ten peers, as well as Bobinski.

"Well, I talked to Mike," Brohm said recently. "He liked the plan and he liked the detail of it and definitely said this is at least a starting point. ... There's talk about possible venues, playing in domes in an earlier part of the spring. There's talk that we've been on pushing around this time frame. I'm not sure what direction it's going to go, but they're exploring all the options to try to make something happen.

"Mike was excited to see it. It wasn't something I thought was going to come out in this much detail, but I just kind of got consumed with it and wanted to get all the facts and figures out there."

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