Flexible schedule offers no promises
The Big Ten has released its 10-game conference-only football schedule that could begin as early as Labor Day weekend, but league officials cautioned there is no certainty games will be played at all this season.
The Big Ten’s schedule announcement, made Wednesday, was the last from the Power Five conferences as college football programs navigate how to play games and prepare for the season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re approaching this entire process on a day-to-day basis,” commissioner Kevin Warren said on the Big Ten Network. “We’re gathering medical information daily, we’re communicating with all of our constituents in the Big Ten and communicating with student-athletes. This will not be a straight line this year.”
Under the revised schedule, teams will play conference opponents they originally were set to meet and will have one additional cross-division game.
The regular season starts the weekend of Sept. 5 and runs through Nov. 21. There is a built-in cushion allowing for makeup games to be played, if necessary. The 10 games would be played over at least 12 weeks, with each team having two open dates. Nov. 28 also is available for makeup games.
If the coronavirus situation dictates, the season could start Sept. 12, 19 or 26. The Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis remains scheduled for Dec. 5 but could be moved as late as Dec. 19.
The conference will allow teams to begin preseason practices Friday, or earlier if a team’s season begins before Sept. 5.
At least four Big Ten football programs have been impacted by COVID-19. Outbreaks forced the shutdown of voluntary workouts at Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State and Rutgers.
“In making this announcement, the Conference acknowledges that there is much work to be done on our campuses, in our communities and across the country to gain control of a virus that continues to spread at an alarming rate,” a Big Ten release read. “While the Conference remains hopeful for a September 2020 start in all fall sports, including football, issuing a schedule does not guarantee that competition will occur. While our strategy is to continue planning for all fall sports, if the virus continues to spread among our students despite our many preventative measures, including testing
and quarantine protocols, we are also prepared to delay or cancel competition pursuant to local and state public health orders or the recommendations of our medical experts.”
The Big 12 announced this week that its teams would play nine conference games beginning in mid-to-late September, with one home nonconference game before that. Atlantic Coast Conference teams will play 10 conference games and one nonconference game that will be held in the state of the ACC team, with first games the week of Sept. 7. The Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 are playing 10-game conference-only schedules beginning Sept. 26.
“It would be purely speculation for me to sit here today and say this is what percent I think we’ll have of a season,” Warren said. “I know from my standpoint I’m taking this entire process, this entire journey, on a day-to-day basis.”
UConn cancels
HARTFORD, Conn. — The University of Connecticut has canceled its football season for the 2020-21 school year, with Wednesday’s announcement making the Huskies the first Football Bowl Subdivision program to do so because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The move came after other schools had already taken the Huskies off their schedules and their state’s governor was reluctant to allow players to travel to states with high infection rates.
“After receiving guidance from state and public health officials and consulting with football student-athletes, we’ve decided that we will not compete on the gridiron this season,” athletic director David Benedict said. “The safety challenges created by COVID-19 place our football student-athletes at an unacceptable level of risk.”
UConn had been scheduled to play its first season as an independent after leaving the American Athletic Conference.
The Huskies had already been taken off the schedules of Illinois, Indiana, Maine and Ole Miss by those schools, and games against North Carolina and Virginia remained uncertain, UConn officials said.
Many of the Power Five conferences are playing only league games this season.
Huskies coach Randy Edsall said the decision had nothing to do with UConn’s conference status.
“If I was the head coach in a conference — a Power Five conference, a Group of Five conference — I’d be saying the same thing. I’d be doing the same thing,” Edsall said. “Because these young men’s lives are more important than money.”
The Huskies began spring practices on Feb. 4 and were one of the only teams in the country to complete a full run of training. The team returned to campus on July 1 and no one has tested positive for the coronavirus, UConn officials said, but the team had several scares, with three players showing COVID-19 symptoms at various times this summer, requiring those players and everyone they had contact with to be isolated until those tests came back negative.