INDIANAPOLIS — Both Indiana University and Purdue University are hosting their first home football games this weekend after a delayed Big Ten season.
It comes during a record-breaking number of COVID-19 cases in Indiana, with nearly 3,000 reported on Thursday. It’s the most Indiana has seen since the start of the pandemic. It's not a trend college communities want to see ahead of a busy football weekend.
The Big Ten Conference announced there will be no fans in stands this year to protect the players and coaches. Many schools, including Indiana and Purdue, are also not allowing tailgating. But mayors of 11 Big Ten cities are still concerned about an increased activity.
In an open letter to the conference, the mayors “humbly” asked officials to address some of their COVID-19 concerns.
“We know the history of football games within our cities. They generate a lot of activity, social gatherings and consumption of alcohol. These activities within our communities have also been associated with an increased spread of COVID-19. We, as cities, continue to respond to issues as they arise, respective of the individual rules put in place within our regions. To help us slow the spread and be prepared for increased activity, we humbly request a few practical measures that the Big Ten Conference can take to ensure we have the tools we need to combat the spread of COVID-19.”
The mayors are also asking the conference to consider the positivity rates of the hosting communities when making decisions when it comes to practices and games.
“Please include the communities where you will be holding games in your conversations and assign a metric to this that is similar to what has already been laid out for your teams. We ask that you work with local and county health officials in these communities to define a population positivity rate, where hosting a football game that would bring increased activity into the community is no longer safe to do.”
To help with a decrease in parties and drinking, the cities are asking the conference to avoid evening and late-afternoon game times.
Indiana hosts Penn State at 3:30 p.m. and Purdue will be hosting Iowa at 3:30 p.m.
Purdue University Coach Jeff Brohm will not be participating in Saturday’s game after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.