VOA慢速英语2020 美大学因新冠取消秋季足球赛

Major Universities Cancel Fall Football Seasons over Coronavirus

Two major college football conferences recently canceled their fall seasons because of concerns over the new coronavirus.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 athletic¹ conferences announced they would not have a fall football season and would also postpone² other sports.

College football is a tradition in America and has millions of fans across the country. The two powerful conferences have valuable agreements to play games shown on television.

The move comes five months after the spread of coronavirus cases in the U.S. led to the cancellation³ of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments. Other winter sports also had their seasons cut short and spring sports were canceled.

Pac-12 Commissioner⁴ Larry Scott said of canceling the conference's football season: "This was an extremely difficult and painful decision that we know will have important impacts on our student-athletes, coaches, administrators⁵ and our fans."

Players, coaches and even U.S. President Donald Trump⁶ have asked that the season be held in some way. However, 40 percent of major college football teams have now decided⁷ to cancel the fall season.

The Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences say the risk of trying to keep players from getting infected with and spreading the virus is too high. "Every life is critical," Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren told the AP.

Many schools unsure about their seasons

The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference are two other big college athletic groups. Both had expressed hopefulness about the fall season. Another conference, the Big 12, has still not released new plans. Together, the five athletic conferences are considered the biggest in the sport. It is unclear what they will do next.

Smaller athletic conferences also have difficult decisions to make. The American Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt conference have not yet decided what to do about the fall sports season. The Mid-American and Mountain West conferences have suggested they may play football in the spring of 2021.

"Everyone is going to make their independent decisions and I certainly respect our colleagues," the Pac-12's Scott said.

The Big Ten said it was postponing⁸ all fall sports and hoping to make them up in the second semester. The Pac-12 said all sports would be postponed⁹ until January 1, including basketball.

Many college football players around the country were shocked by the cancellations. Many had recently taken to social media with the hashtag #WeWanttoPlay.

The move comes as some college players and activists¹⁰ have called on colleges to provide greater health and safety protections for players. They also call on colleges to directly pay student-athletes and permit a players association. Some of these demands have been announced by the group #WeAreUnited.

There had been hopes that the fall season could be played with fewer games and less travel. One week ago, the Big Ten had released an updated schedule involving only teams within the conference.

The Big Ten includes schools like The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Nebraska and Penn State University. But the schools were not completely in agreement.

Ohio State athletic director Gene¹¹ Smith said he would have liked to have pushed back the season start from September 5 to early October.

Nebraska's president wrote that his school was "very disappointed" in the conference's decision.

Nebraska coach Scott Frost and Ohio State coach Ryan Day both suggested that if the Big Ten did not play their schools might look for games with other teams.

In the Pac-12, which includes schools like the University of Southern California and the University of Oregon, there seemed to be more agreement.

"We feel good about our decision," Oregon President Michael Schill said. "We would have made this decision independent of the Big Ten. We respect the institutions in the Big Ten. Many of them have the same values we have. We're pleased they are joining us."

The cost of losing football will be very hard on athletic departments. The Big Ten provided more than $50 million to most of its members in 2018. That money comes from media deals and a conference TV network supported by football.

The University of Wisconsin, a Big Ten member, has estimated it will lose $100 million without football. Michigan said it could lose more than that.

Some conferences are still hoping to play in the fall and others hoping to play in the spring. The result for the financially important sport could be two seasons – or none at all.

I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

Words in This Story

impact –v. to have a big influence on something

colleague –n. a person you work with usually within the same kind of job or profession

schedule –n. a plan of when certain things will be done or events will be held in the future

1 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

2 postpone   

v.延期，推迟

参考例句：

• I shall postpone making a decision till I learn full particulars.在未获悉详情之前我得从缓作出决定。
• She decided to postpone the converastion for that evening.她决定当天晚上把谈话搁一搁。

3 cancellation   

n.删除，取消

参考例句：

• Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大，可能须要取消渡轮服务。
• Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。

4 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

5 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 postponing   

v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He tried to gain time by postponing his decision. 他想以迟迟不作决定的手段来争取时间。 来自辞典例句
• I don't hold with the idea of postponing further discussion of the matter. 我不赞成推迟进一步讨论这件事的想法。 来自辞典例句

9 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。