Big Ten officials met over the weekend and, per about every college football reporter on Twitter, it's likely that the league will reinstate the season in short order.

Sources: Big Ten meeting has been productive in terms of medical plan and maintaining momentum toward playing this fall. Vote has not taken place yet; could still happen tonight or tomorrow. Some schools already setting practice schedules in preparation for October kickoff.

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) September 13, 2020

October 17th is not set in stone but is the most likely date for a restart. That would apparently allow an eight-game schedule and a conference title game on December 19th, the day before the playoff field is announced. (How the playoff is going to deal with a conference that has played zero nonconference games is unknown.)

Rumors that some schools would choose to sit out are unfounded; all fourteen Big Ten schools will resume if any do.

[After THE JUMP: rapid testing]

The advent of rapid point-of-contact testing is the key:

The presidents and chancellors — all 14 of whom make up the ruling body of the Big Ten — heard presentations about medical advances, especially in the area of testing that have taken place since the league voted 11-3 to indefinitely delay the fall football season and other fall sports Aug. 11. The availability of rapid response tests has increased since the Big Ten voted to close the season down. That, sources said, is a key mover towards a restart.

The ability to quickly identify infected players and quarantine them—and only them—would allow an only slightly farcical season to go forward.

Without it you're looking at what's going on across college football, plotting campus case rates, and ruefully shaking your head. Virginia Tech has already seen season openers against first North Carolina State and then Virginia postponed. Oklahoma was missing several starters for its season opener against Missouri State. OU's coronavirus outbreak prompted Lincoln Riley to say his school would no longer release test results because doing so was a "competitive disadvantage." Memphis halted football activities after quarantining much of the team. A party bus is rumored to be involved. In the Big Ten, Wisconsin, Penn State, and Maryland have paused football workouts.

Rapid testing wouldn't prevent covid cases from knocking out key players. It would prevent the current situation where a few positive tests force teams to quarantine large swaths of a team or entirely shut down activity. Big Ten athletes would still be at risk for myocarditis, which may knock out 10-20% of players who come down with covid. The season is still going to be massively compromised.

But it'll exist.