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Thursday, July 23, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Questions to answer with Big Ten-only schedule

For months — really, since 

the 
NCAA 
Men’s 
Basketball 

Tournament 
was 
canceled 
on 

March 12 — it’s been clear that this 
upcoming college football season 
would be anything but normal. 
And on Thursday afternoon, the 
Big Ten gave the first glimpse at 
what abnormal could look like for 
its 14 members, announcing that 
fall sports will be contested entirely 
in-conference, if they happen at all.

“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 conference said in a 
statement. “Details for these sports 
will be released at a later date, while 
decisions on sports not listed above 
will continue to be evaluated. By 
limiting competition to other Big 
Ten institutions, the Conference will 
have the greatest flexibility to adjust 
its own operations throughout the 
season and make quick decisions in 
real-time based on the most current 
evolving medical advice and the 
fluid nature of the pandemic. 

“This decision was made following 

many 
thoughtful 
conversations 

over several months between the 
Big Ten Council of Presidents and 
Chancellors, Directors of Athletics, 
Conference Office staff, and medical 
experts including the Big Ten Task 
Force 
for 
Emerging 
Infectious 

Diseases and the Big Ten Sports 
Medicine Committee.”

Of course, the Big Ten’s decision 

today may not be its decision 
tomorrow — a lesson ingrained back 
in March, when every day came 
with a new announcement until it 
all came crumbling down less than 
a week after the first dominos began 
to fall. But for now, the conference’s 
plan is to play an undisclosed 
number 
of 
conference 
games 

against 
undisclosed 
opponents 

on an undisclosed schedule. It’s a 
plan designed for fluidity, which 
inherently lends itself to more 
questions than answers.

So, here are some questions and 

thoughts to consider as the dust 
settles on the Big Ten’s plan:

The word “if” is carrying a lot of 

weight

The very first sentence of the 

Big Ten’s statement reads, “If the 
Conference is able to participate in 
fall sports based on medical advice, 
it will move to Conference-only 
schedules in those sports.”

That’s no small caveat. New daily 

COVID-19 cases are rising week-
over-week in 45 states, including all 
11 states with Big Ten schools. And 
while no Big Ten state is in the top 10 
in new cases this week — leaving it 
in a better position than every other 
Power Five conference — there have 
still been 5,925 cases per day this 
week in Big Ten states. That’s more 
than all but five other countries. It 
also means that the likelihood of 
football season happening at all is 
dwindling by the day.

Just 
take 
Jim 
Harbaugh’s 

statement yesterday.

“My thoughts would be, it’s a 

different conversation if there’s no 
students on campus,” Harbaugh 
said. “If students are on campus, 
then my personal belief as a parent 
of a daughter who would also be on 
campus that this is a safe place.”

That conversation could become 

the norm in the coming weeks. 
While Michigan remains committed 
to having some in-person instruction 
in the fall, dozens of other schools 
have begun to move in the other 
direction. That includes Harvard 
and Princeton, two schools that 
were among the leaders in moving 
online in the spring. It also includes 
Rutgers, 
potentially 
eliminating 

one scheduled opponent from the 
Wolverines’ docket.

So while the Big Ten’s statement 

today indicates it hopes to hold fall 
sports, the reality is far less rosy. 
But even if the season does happen 
in some capacity, there are plenty of 
questions to answer, including…

What happens to the postseason?
The Big Ten isn’t the only 

conference to reportedly be moving 

to a fully in-conference schedule, 
with the ACC and Pac-12 both doing 
the same, according to multiple 
reports. And considering the rapid 
escalation of new cases in Florida 
and Texas, it seems likely that the 
SEC and Big 12 will soon follow suit.

Through November, that could 

lend itself to a season that looks 
relatively normal. But the College 
Football Playoff, unlike the 2012 
BCS 
National 
Championship, 

isn’t contested within individual 
conferences. 
Neither 
are 
bowl 

games.

And while bowl games could 

be canceled without harming the 
integrity of the season, the same 
can’t be said of the CFP. During the 
last pandemic on this scale in 1918, 
no traditional bowl games were 
held and there was no consensus 
national champion. It’s hard to 
imagine following that blueprint 
with the financial and competitive 
implications of modern-day college 
football.

But any method of crowning a 

national champion means playing 
non-conference games, even if it’s 
just three games between four teams 
in early January. And the feasibility 
of that is hazy at best, especially with 
some schools taking an extended 
winter break to avoid heavy flu 
season.

What is the financial impact 

of canceled ‘buy games’ for small 
schools?

The 
Wolverines 
have 
three 

canceled 
non-conference 
games. 

One of those is the first leg of a 
home-and-home with Washington. 
Regardless of whether that game is 

ever made up, the Huskies will be 
fine financially, both because of their 
operating budget and because that 
game wasn’t constructed primarily 
as a financial agreement.

The same can’t be said of Ball 

State and Arkansas State.

The Wolverines were slotted 

to pay Ball State $975,000. The 
Arkansas State game was even 
pricier, at $1.8 million — a contract 
that included a clause accounting for 
“an act of God.” That likely means 
Michigan will be able to get out of 
paying both Ball State and Arkansas 
State to help mitigate its own 
financial losses.

Small schools such as Ball State 

and Arkansas State, though, don’t 
have the massive television contracts 
and booster donations to soften a 
multi-million dollar hit, especially 
when they’re already losing six 
games of gate revenue.

What happens to Notre Dame?
On the opposite end of the FBS 

spectrum from Ball State and 
Arkansas State, we have Notre 
Dame. The Fighting Irish, with their 
$150 million contract with NBC, will 
be fine financially.

But if every conference limits 

itself to in-conference games, what 
becomes of the nation’s foremost 
independent?

The answer, as of right now, 

seems to be that the Irish will be 
looped into the ACC’s conference 
games. Like everything else, though, 
that plan is in a state of limbo. And 
even if it holds, it could have long-
term ramifications for Notre Dame, 
the ACC and the Big Ten, causing the 
Irish to continue their recent drift 

from the Big Ten toward the ACC.

In the short term, Notre Dame 

will only have to reschedule its 
Oct. 3 game with Wisconsin — an 
unexpected benefit of its recent 
move to only playing one Big Ten 
opponent per season.

How will conference schedules 

unfold?

According to multiple reports, the 

most likely scenario for the Big Ten 
is that teams will move to playing 
10 conference games, up from the 
normally-scheduled 
nine. 
That 

alteration, though, could manifest 
itself in a number of different ways.

The biggest issue could come 

if Rutgers — or any other school 
— decides it’s unsafe to play while 
the rest of the conference goes on 
as planned. What, in that scenario, 
would Michigan do on Nov. 14 when 
it’s scheduled to travel to Piscataway 
while the rest of the Big Ten is busy 
with 
their 
previously-scheduled 

games?

And then there’s the problem 

of figuring out which schools will 
face each other in their 10th games, 
if that proposal comes to pass. The 
easy solution would be to add one 
team from the opposite division 
and call it a day. But the conference 
may decide to re-shuffle its schedule 
to minimize travel. On Oct. 3, for 
example, Minnesota is scheduled 
to travel to Maryland, an 1100-mile 
trip. The conference could cancel 
those games and attempt to match 
East division teams to their nearest 
West counterparts, and vice versa.

Even if all of those issues are 

resolved, conferences will still have 
to decide when these games are 
to be played. Most Big Ten games 
begin Week 4, after a trio of non-
conference games. But there are 
some exceptions, such as Indiana’s 
Week 1 trip to Wisconsin.

So will all conference games be 

moved into a coordinated 11-week 
block, giving each team a bye? And if 
so, when would that block be?

The schedule could run from late 

September to the weekend after 
Thanksgiving, but many schools 
are moving to remote classes after 
Thanksgiving. Alternatively, it could 
be moved up a week to avoid having 
athletes on campus when no other 
students are — a moral line the Big 
Ten might not want to cross. If the 
conference Championship Game 
remains in place, the schedule 
could move forward by two weeks, 
creating a quandary on the other end 
as athletes rush to get game-ready in 
an abbreviated offseason.

Whatever the Big Ten decides, 

though, one thing is clear: today’s 
decision is only the beginning of the 
conference’s troubles.

THEO MACKIE

Managing Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Athletic director Warde Manuel and the Big Ten still have a lot of questions to answer after conference-only decision.

