OFFICIAL: Big Ten Announces Conference-Only Schedule For 2020
According to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, the Big Ten will announce a conference-only football schedule for its 14 institutions July 9, eliminating all non-conference contests from the season.
UPDATE: The Big Ten has officially confirmed the reports, and noted that the conference-only schedule applies for all sports.
For Michigan, this means no trip to Washington Set. 5 and the cancellation of home contests against Ball State and Arkansas State Sept. 12 and Sept. 19, respectively. U-M is currently slated to play nine conference games beginning Sept. 26 against Wisconsin and finishing Nov. 28 at Ohio State.
A report this week from BlackandGold.com's Tom Dienhart said the conference will play 10 conference contests stretched out over 13 weeks, which means multiple byes for each team. What could this schedule look like? We took a stab at a 10-game slate for Michigan, adding Iowa to the mix and moving the Minnesota and Maryland games to early September.
Among the high-profile or rivalry non-conference games the Big Ten was set to participate in, Iowa must cancel its game with Iowa State, Nebraska with Cincinnati, Wisconsin with Notre Dame, Maryland with West Virginia, Michigan State with Miami, Ohio State with Oregon, and Penn State with Virginia Tech.
