Michigan president Mark Schlissel was among several leaders in the Big Ten who opposed playing football this fall as recently as last month.
After several meetings in the past few days, those same leaders decided unanimously to start the season in October.
"I want to share my support for the Big Ten decision to begin football competition next month," Schlissel said in a statement Wednesday morning.
"I join Athletic Director Warde Manuel and everyone at Michigan Athletics in offering appreciation for all the athletes and coaches, the fans and the families who have been preparing for the possibility of playing in the Big House this fall."
The Big Ten originally voted to postpone football -- and all fall sports -- until the spring. An expert in infectious diseases, Schlissel said the reversal was based on new information about COVID-19:
"Earlier I expressed my concern, shared by my fellow Big Ten presidents and chancellors, that we just didn’t know enough about the health and safety concerns unique to intercollegiate athletics to move forward with practices and competition.
"As has been so true during this pandemic, we continue to learn more every day and we have adjusted our approach based on the new information that was developed."
For the Big Ten, one of the biggest developments was the increased availability of rapid, daily testing. Recent studies have also lessened fears about the long-term effects of the virus.
"I especially want to thank the health and safety officials from the Big Ten campuses who have carefully assessed the risk and developed a stringent plan – that will include daily COVID-19 testing – to mitigate those risks for our student-athletes, coaches and others," Schlissel said. "While this approach will start with football, our hope is to use this same approach to resume competition in other sports."
The Big Ten will start play the weekend of Oct. 24, with the conference championship set for Dec. 19.