The Big Ten and Pac-12 called off their fall football seasons on Tuesday because of concerns about COVID-19, taking two of college football's five power conferences out of a crumbling season. Five months after the first spikes in coronavirus cases in the US led to the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament, the pandemic has begun tearing down a sport that generates billion of dollars for the schools that compete in it, the AP reports. Despite pleas from players, coaches and President Trump in recent days to play on, 40% of major college football teams have now decided to punt on a fall season. The Big Ten's announcement, that it was postponing all fall sports and hoping to make them up in the second semester, came first Tuesday afternoon.
An hour later the Pac-12, the Big Ten's Rose Bowl partner, called a news conference to say that all sports in its conference would be paused until Jan. 1, including basketball. "This was an extremely difficult and painful decision that we know will have important impacts on our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and our fans,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. "We know nothing will ease that." Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said it had become "abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall." The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference are still moving forward with plans to conduct a season
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