Big Ten Schedule 2020 (link)
- Thread starter dillonpgp
- Start date
If the season proceeds as scheduled, we will have a big challenge out of the box, opening at Ped State...
We added Michigan, Iowa added OSU, Nebraska added MSU, Wisconsin added Rutgers.
We have Michigan PSU MSU Md, Wisconsin has Michigan IU Md Rutgers. Their crossovers are quite a bit easier than all the other contenders. Minnesota is a solid #2 easiest, then Purdue; Iowa and Neb might be even tougher than us. I don't even really count Illinois as a real member or contender in the West division.
They left a bunch of bye weeks in 10/11, and global bye week in 13. That's for rescheduling of postponed games I assume if there is an outbreak. I also noticed that all the week 12 games are crossovers, and most of them are the newly added matchups - I think they are positioning themselves for the option of cancelling that week if needed to reschedule others, then they could play a 9 game conference schedule and still say it is a fair season with a full round robin in division.
Hopefully we get a chance to play it out. I assume it would be no fans or extremely limited fans.
GO CATS
Yeah, @PSU, home Wisconsin, @MSU is a heck of a gauntlet to start for working in likely a new QB (Ramsey) into a new offense (Bajakian), after who knows how much practice time with the pause on camp. But everyone is dealing with the same obstacles - to be the best, gotta beat the best!
It can work both ways. There is no film on a Bajakian offense run by Ramsey at NU. If our offense can get up that learning curve quickly, then I think the advantage is ours.
haha I like it. maybe we can bust up the PSU D with something unexpected a la Randy Walker.
Penn State lost Micah Parsons, the anchor to their defense. He is opting out of the season. Huge loss for them.
I think it will start, but will be surprised if it makes it beyond week 2 or 3.
Once college campuses have students and the games start, cases will skyrocket on the teams and put this revised season at risk.
I so hope this doesn't happen, but it sure seems like the most likely outcome at the moment.
Certainly possible. I think that's why they've scheduled it this way with all the extra bye weeks. So that if / when that does happen a few weeks in, they can pause for a week or two, suspend games, and see if it is possible to resume things. And see how it goes from there.
I think the question is not just what happens if there are positive cases within the teams, but what happens if a campus decides it needs to totally shut down (or the state decides for them). That might be where it falls apart.
I'm watching the Big Ten Network now! Great coverage of the schedule! Let's go Cats! We got MSU in the third game after Wisconsin! Brutal start! And we finish with Michigan! OMG! Brutal!
I don't see the 10-game schedule being played in full. If there is a season, it will likely be an imbalanced schedule with some schools having maybe 4 or 5 games and other maybe getting as many as 7 or 8 as games are cancelled due to COVID-19 stoppages or quarantines. I see Penn State on the schedule for Labor Day weekend, but I question whether college football will be ready in early September. Even if the COVID-19 situation improves from where it is now, it seems that a month-and-a-half is needed to prep for the season and NU itself has already been impacted by workout disruptions along with almost half the Big Ten.
The team has been working out together in the lakefront facility since the middle of June. Coaches were allowed to participate in July. That's the case with all BIG schools. Yes, there have been interruptions, but I don't think teams won't be ready by Labor Day weekend unless there are major covid-19 disruptions going forward.
Well yes. In that case the team would be out. And possibly the whole thing falls apart.
Honestly this exercise really does expose the hypocrisy of the NCAA. They still want the kids to play, and take health risk (albeit a very very low health risk at their age), but the kids aren't getting paid at all.
It makes much more sense for NBA NHL MLB where the players are getting paid and they can make a reasonable decision about whether it is worth their wages to go into the bubble and do it. Here it makes less sense.
I realize there is love of the game for the players, and some of them are playing for future NFL draft opportunity, but it seems ridiculous that the conferences and NCAA want so much for the games to happen and the players aren't getting compensated for it. I want college football to happen very much also, but it is totally hypocritical. We have to remember that these are college kids. They are going to go to college, and it is completely unreasonable to ask them to quarantine at college. There will likely be
I saw a writer (a serious one, nationally respected) who wrote a piece about how each of the P5 conferences should establish a bubble and send all the players there, and explained how it makes sense monetarily and they can afford it with all the TV revenues. I was like, WTF???? You must be joking this is an absurd suggestion.
I really hope there is football, but we have to remember these are 18-22 year old kids who are not being paid. I am glad that the B1G at least guaranteed all scholarships for anyone who voluntarily doesn't want to play, that seems like a bare minimum move.
It will be an adventure to see what happens when campuses re-open. I think there is almost no doubt that there will be spread of the virus. There will be decisions to be made about what to do about that. Nearly all of them are extremely low risk, so do you just let it run its course? I'm not sure. That might be the best option, but it probably brings about a lot of public criticism. The alternative is cancelling a year of school which is seriously harmful long-term, or conducting a year of school remotely which is slightly less harmful but still causes a lot of serious problems. No easy decisions...
Devil's advocate argument for a bubble that I myself don't buy but wrote out of boredom:
The Big Ten designates two cities, one for each division, where all players, coaches, and support staff are isolated for the duration of the season. The players take their classes online with the help of tutors present in the bubble. The cities have to make at least two practice sites available so teams could train in daily shifts. Since there are seven teams in each division, you would have six divisional games and one-cross divisional each week, and since the teams fly and travel private anyway, there would be less likelihood of exposure.
I’m sure our amateur athletes would enjoy spending 12 weeks of their lives in isolation just to entertain us! They’re here to play football, not college.
I'm just thinking out loud here, so don't hold me to this, but...
Why wouldn't they want to do this?
It's not like college campuses are going to be all that fun to be around this year. Likely no activities. No gatherings. No parties (and if there are, football players would be severely barred from attending them anyway). They wouldn't be missing much on campus. Most classes are going to be online for most campuses anyway, so they're not really missing out a ton there. They would probably be in one of the safest environments you could be in - look how well the NBA bubble is working. Zero positive tests for three trials in a row now for the entire league. And they are hanging out with their friends (teammates) and doing what they love. Maybe it wouldn't be so terrible for them. I think it would beat staying at home by themselves, which is where a lot of campuses might be heading this fall.
Now, there are probably a million other logistical problems with this solution that make it unlikely, but I don't know that its so terrible for the players relative to life in general these days.
NBA players such as LeBron compared going into their bubble to doing a prison “bid”.
But they’re doing it because they get paid millions of dollars. And it’s affording them the opportunity to freely spread their messages for social change.
We’re talking about college student athletes, not people who are being compensated to sacrifice there entire lives of their months for free... plus some virtual learning.
They can still see friends and at least attend outdoor events while masked at NU. And if a vaccine comes out, they can quickly get back to those good old college times...
LeBron is a pampered millionaire (billionaire?). He had to leave his family and his mansion behind. Life in the bubble for these college kids may not be so terrible - especially compared to the alternative. Most kids on campus are going to be expected to limit the number of people they interact with. I think life will likely feel like prison for most college kids this fall. It's not going to be a fun semester (year, perhaps). I think if you asked my college son, he'd agree to 12 weeks in a bubble with his bandmates playing jazz and attending virtual classes (that's his thing - not football) over staying at home taking classes online or even the current situation where he is living in an apartment with friends where they are basically being told to behave like they are in a bubble. The extra benefit is that the bubble will be way better controlled and probably a lot safer. The more I think about it, the more I wish they'd do a bubble for my kid's program!
If your son is in a bubble for band, I would bet it’s not all big smelly guys like a football team. Or rather 14 football teams. Bands have lots of females, right? Gorgeous jazz singers and players of various instruments?
But a bubble for 12 weeks without a potential significant other (ladies) in sight or the ability to leave? That sounds like prison to me, whether you’re a broke college student or a billionaire like LeBron.
Again ... to play this one out ... players commit most of their lives to becoming good enough at football to draw a P5 offer. The season matters far more to them than it does to us. If the schools are going to push ahead with a season, why don't they do it in a controlled environment with a much better chance of succeeding?
Ok... that's a more convincing argument.
But hey, it's not for a year - it's only 3 months. Who among us didn't have a little slump in that department at some point in college? At least in this case, you could blame it on the bubble!
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