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The last 72 hours have been hectic to say the least.
Late last week, the Big Ten announced its schedule for the fall football season, while the SEC announced its two new opponents for each league member, as it appeared having a college football season was still full steam ahead.
Then the weekend came, and word began trickling out that the sport was set to cancel its 2020 season.
So, what changed that caused such a dramatic shift in the plan for fall football?
This may have nothing to do with it, but on Friday, former Florida State center Michael Ojo tragically lost his life to a heart attack while training. He was just 27 years old.
It turns out that Ojo had contracted the coronavirus this offseason, and we’re just starting to learn that one of the major after effects the virus can cause is damage to the heart.
One person I just spoke with pointed to the tragic death of Michael Ojo as a reason why they prefer to go very slowly here. I was not aware of this, but Ojo reportedly recovered from COVID and then died of a heart attack several weeks later.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) August 10, 2020
It’s unclear if the coronavirus contributed to Ojo’s heart attack, but if it did, he would be the first current/recent Division I basketball athlete to die as a result of complications from the virus. That’s obviously a big ‘if’ right now, but if that turns out to be the case, then it’s going to be very hard to justify having any fall sports.