Michigan State Football: 3 benefits of playing 2020 season this fall

While the Big Ten has been back-and-forth, per reports, about playing this fall, Michigan State football might benefit from a season starting in September.

New Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren had to make a difficult decision last week. Playing football this fall always felt like a long-shot, but when he made it official that his conference wouldn’t be partaking, many fans, players and even some coaches were shocked.

We saw a number of student-athletes voice their opinions on both sides of the spectrum. On one side, there were athletes who felt like there was little threat to them and playing football should be a choice up to them and not the commissioner or school presidents. Conversely, some athletes applauded the decision by the Big Ten to put player safety first.

The conference announced a plan to return in the spring, assuming COVID-19 is under control at that point, which softened the blow of the fall cancellation.

There are plenty of doubts that the right decision was made or even that a season will happen at all, but the Big Ten wanted to be the first conference to make a move, hoping that others might follow its lead. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 is the only other league that followed as the Big 12, ACC and SEC all plan to play this fall.

Conflicting rumors were shut down by Warren on Wednesday when he said that the league won’t revisit a vote to play this fall.

If, for some reason, the season was going on as planned for the Big Ten, it would have some serious benefits for the Spartans, even under a strange circumstance with a new head coach, limited offseason and new starting quarterback.