Per Nicole Auerbach:
The Big Ten is expected to announce today that it will go with a conference-only football schedule for this fall, a person with direct knowledge situation tells @TheAthleticCFB.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 9, 2020
An ESPN story has some further details: "overwhelming support" for a ten-game conference-only schedule. And it just became official.
Michigan thus will not play at Washington or against Arkansas State and Ball State. They will add a game against a Big Ten West opponent. Purdue, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are already scheduled so it'll be Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, or Iowa. Adam Rittenberg further asserts that the league schedule will be "front-loaded with division games," presumably so that determining a champion is less farcical. That would move the OSU game (and all the other rivalry week games) off their normal spot.
Yes, this seems like a fairly bad sign for the prospect of playing a season. The official release linked above:
To that end, the Big Ten Conference announced today that if the Conference is able to participate in fall sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball) based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports.
Grimace emoji time.
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MichGoBlue858
July 9th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
I know it’s a logistical nightmare, but it seems like a much better idea to just cancel everything this year and try to have a Spring season.
Joined: 11/20/2010
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Gucci Mane
July 9th, 2020 at 4:21 PM ^
As long as school isn’t canceled, football should be a go. Many of these players should be safer playing football than back home around friends, in regards to likelihood of getting virus.
Joined: 02/10/2014
MGoPoints: -99957431
lilpenny1316
July 9th, 2020 at 5:52 PM ^
Only if they are quarantined from the rest of the student population. The players on these teams have friends on campus.
Joined: 11/19/2009
MGoPoints: 34623
Blue Me
July 9th, 2020 at 10:46 PM ^
That makes no sense at all.
Joined: 02/17/2019
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Communist Football
July 9th, 2020 at 4:40 PM ^
I actually like this decision. It makes sense to keep things to a conference schedule because then you don't have to worry about all the protracted negotiations with outside institutions, and you get a lot more flexibility with scheduling should there need to be postponements. It also creates more opportunities for bye weeks. Tom Dienhart had more on the logic of the move here. According to a B1G head coach:
Joined: 09/18/2010
MGoPoints: 6099
NotADuck
July 9th, 2020 at 6:07 PM ^
This makes a bunch of sense. I like the flexibility mentioned.
Lets not forget that having a season is key for some of these kids too. There are plenty of sure-fire draft picks like Trevor Lawrence and such but the players who need to increase their stock are probably hoping and praying for a season. Even if it ends up being in the spring, having a season is important for a lot more reasons that lining the pockets of the institutions and keeping all of us happy.
Will there still be a playoff? Not important. Getting these kids some quality playing time and putting out good film for pro scouts is important. Also its good for player development, obviously.
On another note, I hope we don't get Nebraska or Iowa since we already got the top 3 teams (maybe) in the west on our schedule. Although, more competitive matchups will make each week more interesting.
Joined: 12/20/2013
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I Like Burgers
July 9th, 2020 at 4:40 PM ^
There are no good choices at the moment. You can...
1) Try and have a season in the fall and deal with trying to keep people virus free and come up with protocols for when they do contract it.
2) Postpone the season to the spring, but there's no guarantee things are better in Feb/March, you'd have to layoff a ton of people and kick them from health insurance to make it to spring financially, and then you'd need to figure out how to restart and deal with eligibility, facilities, lawsuits (soooo many lawsuits...) etc.
3) Cancel the season, which basically ends college athletics as we know it. Hundreds, maybe thousands of scholarships would be cancelled, and you'd have to layoff almost everyone. I think almost all G5 programs would cease to exist. They barely have enough to make it now, and missing out on money from TV contracts and the pay days they get from playing P5 programs would leave them in a spot they can't bounce back from. And good luck figuring out how to restart a 2021 season from that crater.
All shitty choices, but to me, option 1 is the only one that has outcomes that *might* be bad. Options 2 and 3 have guaranteed BAD outcomes.
Joined: 10/06/2012
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m83econ
July 9th, 2020 at 4:47 PM ^
Postponing football until spring is an idea generated by people who have no clue how absurd of a concept it is.
Joined: 09/13/2008
MGoPoints: 3283
bronxblue
July 9th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
The proposed flexible schedule where teams may need to reschedule multiple games in the fall isn't any more reasonable.
They're all bad ideas. Spring at least gives you a chance if a vaccine becomes readily available.
Joined: 11/22/2008
MGoPoints: 75252
Autocracy Now
July 9th, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^
I work in a field with a lot of biotech people and nobody thinks we are realistically going to have a widely distributed vaccine for probably close to a year. Maybe later.
Joined: 09/13/2011
MGoPoints: 15467
bronxblue
July 9th, 2020 at 8:20 PM ^
Interestingly I know a couple of people involved in drug development here in Boston and they are more optimistic given the massive testing of multiple vaccines that are going on right now. Obvious caution that finding one that is reasonably viable and then producing it at scale will be difficult, but it's not out of the realm of possibility by any means.
Nobody really knows what the future holds; we know a ton more about the virus than we did 6 months ago and chances are we'll know a lot more 6 months from now. But it's pretty obvious the country isn't remotely set up to handle the massive rise in cases currently occurring and the inevitable surge when students come back to school. So just trying to power through it in the fall isn't likely to be very feasible.
Joined: 11/22/2008
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I Like Burgers
July 9th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
But the country in general is also in pretty much the same spot it was 6 months ago in terms of its response to the virus. Sure, scientists and doctors have learned more about the disease, but the leaders in charge of implementing a public response to it hasn't learned a damn thing at all in 6 months. There's no evidence whatsoever we'll be reacting better to the disease at at the peak of flu season better than we are now or were in Feb/March.
Joined: 10/06/2012
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bronxblue
July 9th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
The proposed flexible schedule where teams may need to reschedule multiple games in the fall isn't any more reasonable.
They're all bad ideas. Spring at least gives you a chance if a vaccine becomes readily available.
Joined: 11/22/2008
MGoPoints: 75252
TrueBlue2003
July 9th, 2020 at 5:26 PM ^
Why would this end college athletics? Why would G5 programs cease to exist?
You think if they take a season off demand will plummet for a potential 2021 season? You think interest is that fragile?
Joined: 01/05/2010
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I Like Burgers
July 9th, 2020 at 7:28 PM ^
Demand isn't the issue. Money is. All of these programs are funded by football and they primarily get their money from TV contracts and home game ticket sales. Without a football season, they aren't going to get either of those, but they've already spent the money.
If you cancel the 2020 season, to cover the budget shortfall you'll need to drop almost all of the sports, cut athletes from scholarships, and then layoff most of your coaches and support staff for athletics. You can try bringing them back for a 2021 season, but you're still not going to have any money coming in until you start playing again. Its not a light switch you turn off and on again.
Bigger schools have more resources to try and weather this storm, and the cuts will be heavy but maybe not as severe because like you said they know the demand is there for when things come back. But smaller schools? They don't have that option. And once they cut sports and lay people off, there may be no coming back.
There was already a wide split between the P5 and G5 programs, this is going to widen and accelerate that split regardless.
And on a side note, the financial reasons were why the NBA resumed its season starting with the end of the regular season. They needed to play around 6-8 games more of the regular season to fulfill their regional TV contracts, and then hold playoffs to fulfill the national contracts. Without either of those happening, it would have blown up all of those deals and blown up the CBA as well. Money talks in sports, and there's A LOT of money in CFB.
Joined: 10/06/2012
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TrueBlue2003
July 9th, 2020 at 5:21 PM ^
Why do you think spring will be safer?
Joined: 01/05/2010
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MichGoBlue858
July 9th, 2020 at 5:29 PM ^
There’s a chance that either the cases are a lot lower then than they are now, or there’s a vaccine by then. Neither are guarantees, but both are plausible.
Joined: 11/20/2010
MGoPoints: 2182
LKLIII
July 9th, 2020 at 4:16 PM ^
Let's play a game:
Top 5 Phrases Likely Uttered By Authors & Editors of HTTV 2020 Upon Hearing This News:
5)
4)
3)
2)
1)
Go!!!
Joined: 11/06/2013
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Big Boutros
July 9th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^
this stinks like a stinky smell
Joined: 07/08/2008
MGoPoints: 19964