New York Giants: Saquon Barkley Speaks On Big Ten Cancellation

New York Giants, Saquon Barkley
Jul 25, 2019; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) talks with the media before the first day of training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The Big Ten Conference is set to not play football this year. For some of the players on the New York Giants, including Saquon Barkley, that’s sad news to hear. The Big Ten has obviously produced  a large number of NFL players, but a lot of current ones will miss their chance to improve their draft stock this year.

For Barkley, that also means there won’t be a chance to watch his alma mater this year – others such as Nick Gates and Jabrill Peppers are in the same boat. On Monday, Barkley spoke to the press about his thoughts. Mainly, he pointed out the negative effect the decision to cancel football will have on players that are entering the draft.

“It sucks to not be able to see those guys out there, especially those younger guys… People talk about the example of Joe Burrow was supposed to be a sixth or seventh round pick and then ended up being the number one pick in the draft. I definitely feel bad for those guys,” Barkley said.

The college football season is supposed to start in a couple weeks at this point. But like the NFL season, nothing is certain. Either season could still be called off at this point. It looks like the college game is closer to missing the 2020 season than the NFL is.

But Barkley seemed to believe the NFL season will still happen.

“At the end of the day, I’m just happy and fortunate that in the NFL we get to go out and do it. You have to be careful, you have to be smart. This is a tough thing that is going on in the world right now. Even though how badly you want to play and how bad I want to see those guys play, you also have to have a little understanding, I guess.”

If there’s no 2020 season for college football, we might see a spring season – delayed until next year, of course. As for how this would impact the NFL and the draft? Well, no one can exactly say that yet. This has never exactly happened before, after all. But for the Giants scouting department, it’s safe to say this college football season may be weird, if it happens at all.