Michigan State Football: Jacub Panasiuk won’t be last Spartan to opt out

Jacub Panasiuk has decided to sit out the 2020 season and return in 2021 for Michigan State football. You can’t blame him for this tough decision.

A new door has been opened for college athletes and it started in the Big Ten with reigning receiver of the year Rashod Bateman opting out of the 2020 season to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

A lot of athletes don’t want to risk their health with COVID-19 spreading for a shortened season and Jacub Panasiuk became the first Spartan to take this route.

On Wednesday, he announced that he would be planning on opting out of the shortened, conference-only 2020 season in order to prepare for 2021. He’s utilizing his redshirt, so his career at Michigan State isn’t over and that’s probably not the worst thing for the Spartans.

Panasiuk likely opened the floodgates for Michigan State as he’s the first player to opt out and surely won’t be the last. He’s a senior with NFL aspirations, so if there is a season, why risk your health and well-being for just 10 games?

We will likely see other seniors follow his lead because this season is going to be rough for the Spartans and 2021 will likely have a much brighter outlook.

It’s good that these kids can make this decision and those with redshirts available can utilize them and decide to come back for one more season or declare for the NFL draft. We will see Panasiuk as a leader of the 2021 defense and the fact that he still wants to support the team in any way shows that he’s not doing this selfishly.

Honestly, more kids should be doing this because, well, nothing is guaranteed this year. The season could start and be cancelled midway through.

Why risk that?