The Big Ten Con­fer­ence, already in court and under pres­sure from play­ers and par­ents over its deci­sion to can­cel fall foot­ball, is now hear­ing from Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

Trump tweet­ed Tues­day that he had spo­ken with Big Ten Com­mis­sion­er Kevin War­ren about rein­stat­ing the fall season.

“Had a very pro­duc­tive con­ver­sa­tion with Kevin War­ren, Com­mis­sion­er of the Big Ten Con­fer­ence, about imme­di­ate­ly start­ing up Big Ten foot­ball,” the tweet said. “Would be good (great!) for every­one – Play­ers, Fans, Coun­try. On the one yard line!”

The Big Ten, in a state­ment, said a White House rep­re­sen­ta­tive reached out to War­ren to set up a phone call with Trump. The state­ment said War­ren and Trump had a “pro­duc­tive conversation.”

“The Big Ten Con­fer­ence and its Return To Com­pe­ti­tion Task Force, on behald of the Big Ten Coun­cil of Pres­i­dents and Chan­cel­lors (COP/C), are exhaust­ing every resource to help stu­dent-ath­letes get back to play­ing the sports they love, at the appro­pri­ate time, in the safest and health­i­est way pos­si­ble,” the state­ment said.

The con­fer­ence is filled with teams from bat­tle­ground states that will prove crit­i­cal in the upcom­ing elec­tion between Trump and Demo­c­rat Joe Biden.

The Big Ten announced Aug. 11 it would move its foot­ball sea­son to the spring semes­ter because of health risks asso­ci­at­ed with the pan­dem­ic. The Pac-12 fol­lowed suit, join­ing the Mid-Amer­i­can Con­fer­ence and the Moun­tain West. Oth­er leagues are play­ing short­ened seasons.

War­ren has been under pres­sure for three weeks as the out­cry against the deci­sion has grown loud­er. Last week, a group of Nebras­ka play­ers filed a law­suit seek­ing a rever­sal of the deci­sion, and Gov. Pete Rick­etts has been a vocal pro­po­nent of the Corn­huskers play­ing fall football.

“Before the Big Ten’s deci­sion, we were already work­ing with the uni­ver­si­ty and pub­lic health offi­cials on plans to play foot­ball this fall,” said Rick­etts, a Repub­li­can. “We would love for the Big Ten to give schools the flex­i­bil­i­ty to make deci­sions that are right for them.”

The Asso­ci­at­ed Press and oth­er out­lets report­ed last week that Big Ten offi­cials are work­ing on mul­ti­ple plans for stag­ing a foot­ball sea­son — includ­ing one that would have the league kick­ing off dur­ing the Thanks­giv­ing week­end. Soon after, Trump brought up the state of col­lege football.

“No, I want Big Ten, and all oth­er foot­ball, back – NOW,” Trump tweet­ed then. “The Dems don’t want foot­ball back, for polit­i­cal rea­sons, but are try­ing to blame me and the Repub­li­cans. Anoth­er LIE, but this is what we are up against! “

Trump down­played the seri­ous­ness of COVID-19 for col­lege-aged foot­ball players.

“These are big, strong guys. They’ll be just fine,” Trump said Fri­day. “Big Ten. Get with it. Open up your sea­son, Big Ten.”

Trump, before board­ing Air Force One on Tues­day, again framed the debate over play­er and fan safe­ty as a polit­i­cal one. He said “the biggest head­wind we have is that you have Democ­rats who don’t want to see it happen.”

Trump said he spoke with War­ren and “we had a very good con­ver­sa­tion, very pro­duc­tive, and maybe we’ll be very nice­ly surprised.”

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AP Writer Kevin Frek­ing in Wash­ing­ton and Col­lege Foot­ball Writer Ralph D. Rus­so con­tributed to this report.