The Big Ten has nixed a proposal by Nebraska to play a replacement game against Chattanooga after the Cornhuskers’ game with Wisconsin was canceled due to a coronavirus outbreak on the Badgers team.
Nebraska senior athletics director Dr. Jay Blackman confirmed the decision to ESPN, as did Chattanooga AD Mark Wharton to CBS Sports.
“We knew at the beginning of the conversations that it was going to be a long shot,” Blackman told ESPN. “We were trying to do things to get ready. People were excited.”
The Big Ten shot down Nebraska’s request, in part because it doesn’t want teams outside of the conference — and its COVID testing protocols — to play Big Ten teams, USA Today reported. The Big Ten voted to play a conference-only slate.
Chattanooga tested all of its players on Wednesday with the results coming back negative on all, per the reports. Testing was scheduled to be done Thursday and again Friday once the team landed in Lincoln, Neb.
Nebraska paid for the testing and guaranteed Chattanooga $200K-250K for the game, ESPN reported.
Chattanooga, an FCS team in the Southern Conference, played its lone game of the fall last week, losing to Western Kentucky. That conference voted to play its season in the spring, with the Mocs scheduled to play VMI on Feb. 20.
Nebraska lost its season-opener at Ohio State last week. Per Big Ten protocols, any game not played because of COVID-19 will go down as a “no contest,” not to be made up.
