Official: Big Ten is going to a conference-only season, playing 10 games

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tjgopher said:
Uh, the first three weeks of September are mostly open for everyone now. That's likely when the 10th game will be added.
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Not necessarily. Rittenberg reported that the conference wants to front load the schedule with division games. As mentioned a few posts above, they might shuffle the schedule for every team.
 

MplsGopher said:
That would be the stupidest decision.

Risky game for Ohio State. Why put then at risk when they’re the conf’s best CFP candidate?

Shouldn’t matter if we just played a team last year. It should be Rutgers, coming to TCF.
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If Minnesota wins, if played, that would make them the best CFP candidate no?
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
If Minnesota wins, if played, that would make them the best CFP candidate no?
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Sure, but I'm trying to take the viewpoint of the Big Ten office. Why would you put your best CFP candidate at risk, right off the bat in week 1, by giving them the team in the West that might have the best chance at beating them?? Makes no sense.
 

60's Guy said:
You mean just tell all the coaches to go work at Burger King for a year? Tell all the scholarship athletes to drop out of school for a year? The majority of the expenses can’t be suspended. Athletic department can’t just go home without pay. No games, no revenue but the bills don’t change much.
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Yes, you tell the coaches and AD staff to do something else for a year. Furloughed with no pay. You turn the lights off in the buildings. Whatever the minimal amount of HVAC is needed to make sure the building itself doesn't go to hell with mold, etc.

Students you can ask the school to give them tuition waivers.


Maybe it's a long shot, but doesn't it beat closing down the entire athletic dept completely??? I can't see how the answer isn't yes.
 

hello-world said:
That's tricky because we also don't get any revenue from the game so Minnesota would just take a $2 million bath to keep FAU ($1.2M), BYU ($300K), and TNTC ($450K) above water. I imagine that Minnesota is not going to pay and get sued.

I don't understand why Minnesota paid BYU in the first place. They are a big time program and generate more than enough revenue on their own. Plus we travel there next year.
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The Gophers are not scheduled to go to Provo until 2025. I am sure the $300k was primarily for travel expenses for which the Gophers would also get on the return game.
 


Livingat45north said:
So, do we have to pay our guaranteed contracts to our non-conference opponents even though the game isn't being played? I'm guessing (total guess) that we'll still have to pay them their appearance fee.
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The contracts almost certainly have some type of cancellation clause that will significantly reduce or eliminate any payout. I know I heard that Iowa's AD doesn't believe that they owe UNI anything for cancelling their game. As a practical matter, any disagreements could likely be resolved as part of an agreement to re-schedule the games for some future year.
 

BilldGopher said:
Statement that there will even be a season...

Progress.
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I wouldn't read too much into that. The official position until yesterday is that they were planning to play an entire season. This is all very fluid and I don't take this announcement any more seriously than Harvard's proclamation earlier this summer that they were going to be open in the fall for in person learning. Things are changing on a daily basis and, while they want to be positioned to play if at all possible, we seem to be getting farther from that goal rather than closer to it.
 

MplsGopher said:
Sure, but I'm trying to take the viewpoint of the Big Ten office. Why would you put your best CFP candidate at risk, right off the bat in week 1, by giving them the team in the West that might have the best chance at beating them?? Makes no sense.
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There is no certainty of the CFP taking place. If there is, who knows if the criteria will change to get in.

Devil's advocate if there is a CFB, scheduling the Gophers could bolster Ohio St SOS and be what get's them in the CFP. They were going on the road to play Oregon. Pretty comparable.
 

Let’s be honest, I’m being selfish. I view Ohio St as a likely loss no matter what, which only hurts our chances of winning the West.
 



Ope3 said:
There is no certainty of the CFP taking place. If there is, who knows if the criteria will change to get in.

Devil's advocate if there is a CFB, scheduling the Gophers could bolster Ohio St SOS and be what get's them in the CFP. They were going on the road to play Oregon. Pretty comparable.
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Actually , getting the most difficult game possible is our path to the playoffs and why i despise the idea of playing Rutgers.
 

MplsGopher said:
Sure, but I'm trying to take the viewpoint of the Big Ten office. Why would you put your best CFP candidate at risk, right off the bat in week 1, by giving them the team in the West that might have the best chance at beating them?? Makes no sense.
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Could be for the TV views and to start the season off with a bang.
Also for Ohio State it would be better losing to MN(or any team for thay matter) at the beginning of the year than at the end. Losses at the end of the year seem to get judged harsher than at the start.
 

based on what I heard on the BTN last night, the previous 2020 schedule will be scrapped and they will start from scratch to draw up a new schedule.

I also heard or read somewhere that they want the divisional games at the front of the schedule.

But, when the B1G Commissioner is stating openly that "there might not be a football season," you know that they have been talking about it at the league level.

all of this may amount to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.
 




Do people really think the conference would rig the schedules to purposely favor a certain team? I don't think that would fly with every other team in the conference.
 

btowngopher said:
Do people really think the conference would rig the schedules to purposely favor a certain team? I don't think that would fly with every other team in the conference.
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I was only talking about one game. It's not like they would make a big annoucement "Oh hay guyz, just so you kno, we're giving Illinois to Ohio State so they don't screw up the CFP. Looolllllz! Kthx"
 

short ornery norwegian said:
based on what I heard on the BTN last night, the previous 2020 schedule will be scrapped and they will start from scratch to draw up a new schedule.

I also heard or read somewhere that they want the divisional games at the front of the schedule.

But, when the B1G Commissioner is stating openly that "there might not be a football season," you know that they have been talking about it at the league level.

all of this may amount to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Saw a tweet from one of the national media guys that he thinks there's a 25% chance there's college football played this Fall.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
Not necessarily. Rittenberg reported that the conference wants to front load the schedule with division games. As mentioned a few posts above, they might shuffle the schedule for every team.
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Yes, that is basically my bigger point. The first 3 weeks of Sept are open. They very well will likely move conference games to those weeks. If it's the added game or its division games, the point stands. I was responding to the idea that playing Indiana made the most sense because we shared bye weeks. I don't think that will have anything to do with it.
 

Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it. Or I missed something somewhere.

What is the benefit of cancelling NC games? How does that make things safer?
 

USAF said:
Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it. Or I missed something somewhere.

What is the benefit of cancelling NC games? How does that make things safer?
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According to their statement:

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.
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bigten.org

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference
bigten.org bigten.org
 

USAF said:
Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it. Or I missed something somewhere.

What is the benefit of cancelling NC games? How does that make things safer?
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In general the B1G areas of the country are doing a better job controlling the virus. Keep those dirty diseased southerners out of our stadiums....
:LOL:
 

builtbadgers said:
Actually , getting the most difficult game possible is our path to the playoffs and why i despise the idea of playing Rutgers.
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This makes no sense to me.

The only way we're going to the CFP, is by beating Ohio St in the Big Ten championship game in Indy. Why is it better to have to beat them twice in one season??
 





USAF said:
Maybe I'm just too stupid to get it. Or I missed something somewhere.

What is the benefit of cancelling NC games? How does that make things safer?
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Have you read the thread? Several posts there to help explain it.
 

builtbadgers said:
Actually , getting the most difficult game possible is our path to the playoffs and why i despise the idea of playing Rutgers.
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This is just straight up WRONG

here is the path to a playoff birth:

Go unbeaten.
No unbeaten P5 has ever been left out

Go one loss and win the conference championship outright:
Only 1 1-loss conference champ who won the conference outright has ever been left out of playoff...and in that season there were 3 unbeaten and 2 1 loss P5 conference champs.
In that season the team that was left out actually had a tougher SOS but a 29 point loss to a 6-6 team as opposed to a 3 point loss to a top 10 team. The team that beat them by 3 lost to them in a rematch in a conference championship game



If the goal is make the playoffs, the schedule you should want is whatever schedule gives you the best path to one of those two things....not some fictitious SOS argument
 

If there is a season, a total redo of the schedule makes sense. For 7 of the weeks there would be 6 division games and 1 crossover. 3 weeks would be all cross-over.
No or reduced attendance means home or away games could be different weeks than what the schedule was previously.
Also would allow the league to pause and move all remaining games to a week or two later if necessary.
 

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