Report: Big Ten to Announce Revised Football Schedule on Tuesday
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It looks like the Big Ten is ready to take the next step in making a college football season happen this fall. According to multiple sources, the league is going to release its revised schedule on Tuesday.
Four weeks ago, the league announced that it was moving to a conference-only schedule so that all 14 schools could follow the same COVID-19 testing protocols and limit the number of people around the country that they all come into contact with.
Every league team had three nonconference games canceled, and for Indiana, those were home games against Western Kentucky and Ball State, and a road game at Connecticut.
Indiana had nine conference games scheduled, its six regular Big Ten East games and three Big Ten West crossover games with Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue. Presuming the league goes to a 10-game schedule, another Big Ten West foe will be added.
During the July 9 announcement on the cancellation of the nonconference games, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said, “If the conference is able to participate in fall sports ... based on medical advice, it will move to conference-only schedules in those sports.”
The first regular season schedule was supposed to start on Friday, Sept. 5 and end on Saturday, Nov. 28. By moving to a shorter schedule, bye weeks can be used to reschedule games as necessary if schools are having virus outbreaks.
Several Big Ten schools, including Indiana, have been forced to pause workouts because of an excessive amount of positive tests. Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Rutgers and others have been forced to do the same. According to one report, there have been positive tests at 95 schools so far this summer.
And just because the schedule is being released Tuesday, that in no way means the games will actually happen if the pandemic gets worse.
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