Trump Prods Big Ten to ‘Immediately’ Resume Plans for Football

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday prodded the Big Ten Conference of universities to “immediately” resume playing football and blamed Democrats for the decision by the schools to suspend games due to coronavirus concerns.

Trump said he had a “very productive” phone conversation with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren about playing football. “Would be good (great!) for everyone - Players, Fans, Country. On the one yard line!” he tweeted.

The Big Ten said in a statement that it’s “exhausting every resource to help student-athletes get back to playing the sports they love, at the appropriate time, in the safest and healthiest way possible.” The conference didn’t give any indication its football teams were ready to resume play.

College football is essentially a campaign issue for the president, who is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in most polls two months before the election, and the Big Ten is especially crucial. The conference includes heavyweight teams located in Midwestern and Great Lakes battleground states that are key to Trump’s re-election, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Trump has been more vocal about the Big Ten’s decision not to play games than about other, less politically important conferences that are not playing, including the Pac-12 and Mountain West.

The Biden campaign began running ads late last week on digital platforms blaming Trump’s handling of the pandemic for the shutdown of sporting events. One version of the spot features images of Michigan Stadium and the University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium, both of which are empty.

“Trump put America on the sidelines,” the ad said. “Let’s get back in the game.”

Trump told reporters before departing for a trip to Wisconsin on Tuesday that “the biggest headwind you have is you have Democrats that don’t want to see it happen.” He didn’t say how Democrats are preventing football games from resuming.

The president has been insistent that the country must resume work, in-person school, football games and other social activities despite the continued spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 183,000 Americans since the start of the year.

Some major conferences, including the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, and Big Twelve, have said they plan to play games this fall.

“Open up your season, Big Ten,” Trump said during a campaign rally last Friday in New Hampshire.

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