It was announced last week that the Big Ten and Pac-12 were postponing their fall football seasons. The ACC, Big 12 and SEC are all still scheduled to play, but that could change in the upcoming weeks.
Players from around the country started the #WeWantToPlay movement, but it wasn’t enough for the Big Ten, who voted 12-2 in favor of postponing the season. Arguably the best player in the conference, Justin Fields, has started a petition to attempt to bring back a fall football season.
The petition is now over 70,000 signatures after just two hours of the original tweet from Fields, with signatures coming in at an extremely quick rate.
Fields is projected by many to be a top-five pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, so it would be unlikely he would play in a spring season. The former Georgia transfer helped lead his team to the College Football Playoffs in 2019 before losing to a Trevor Lawrence led Clemson team.
In 2019, Fields threw for 3,273 yards for 41 touchdowns and had only three interceptions. He also ran for 484 yards on 137 attempts, reaching the end zone 10 times with his legs.
If there’s one player the Big Ten should consider listening to, it’s Fields. He will be playing on Sundays in the future and he had the chance to bring a Heisman Trophy and a National Championship back to the Big Ten.
It’s unlikely that Fields’ petition will bring back a fall football season for the Big Ten, but he is doing everything in his power to play what will likely be his final collegiate season.