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Big Ten Cancels All Non Conference Games

tapeANaspirin2it

tapeANaspirin2it

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After the Ivy League cancelled all sports completely, the Big Ten is the first major conference to come out with a plan. Seems they are doing like most in this pandemic and making sure that they do SOMETHING so they are not accused of taking things seriously.

Big Ten plays 9 conference games so that means 3 games cancelled for all Big Ten teams.

Penn State was scheduled to play at Virginia Tech this year and that's a game that would have had a ton of PSU fans in attendance. I know a bunch of people who were planning that as their road trip. PSU has a huge alumni presence in the Virginia / DC area.

Other games getting the ax are Ohio State vs Oregon, Michigan vs Washington, and Notre Dame vs Wisconsin.


Will other conferences follow suit? It will be interesting. The small schools count on games vs big name teams to make money. Will they still get their paydays? If not will the small conferences just cancel their whole seasons or will they quickly schedule a replacement game?

Something to consider here is that the academics at most major universities HATE sports, particularly football. They would love nothing more that to get rid of football and spend that money on their own departments.
 
This is just the beginning of cancellations. States reopening too soon was the death knell for football.
 
21STEELERS21 said:
This is just the beginning of cancellations. States reopening too soon was the death knell for football.
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tapeANaspirin2it said:
Will other conferences follow suit? It will be interesting. The small schools count on games vs big name teams to make money. Will they still get their paydays? If not will the small conferences just cancel their whole seasons or will they quickly schedule a replacement game?
Click to expand...

The P5 schools don't want to pay big money to a cupcake to play in front of an empty stadium so no doubt the rest will follow. I doubt there'll be a season anyway, but conferences could regulate protocol if for some reason games are played.

Besides this, college football could use some major changes. There are no more than 8 good teams per year and we are lucky if there are more than 3 that are championship worthy. Conference expansion and greed has killed rivalry games and the few big-time match ups you get are held at neutral site locations in NFL stadiums. Takes away from the college atmosphere.
 
I don’t think foozball is happenin’ Bobby Boucher
 
I haven't felt there would be a season for weeks. But to be clear, Notre Dame's season is all but gone in any event. Since they do not have a conference.
 
I saw that the ACC said ND would be an exception if they cancel non conference games.

Cancelling non conference games is stupid. It's just a gutless attempt to make it seem like they are doing something when they aren't. Why is it safer to play conference games? It makes no sense.

College is even safer than the NFL. Younger people are at the lowest risk. College kids generally don't have wives and kids to worry about so it is much easier to keep them "quarantined" to a degree. The rosters are much larger as well so if you do get a few covid cases, it's easier to sit them and replace them with a backup.

I think the Big Ten panicked after the Ivy announced they are cancelling all sports. If another major conference had done the same then it would have pressure them to follow suit.
 
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I've typed out three different responses now as I try to wrap my head around this and what it means for college football for this year and for years to come. How does the NCAA shape the National Championship game with this type of schedule? Isn't this what we've all wanted to see, no cupcake games on the schedules of Power Five schools? Notre Dame's season ruined due to their arrogance of not joining a conference OR other teams following suit so they can customize their scheduling?
 
So basically there can be no way to do bowl games. Can't really come up with rankings if they aren't allowed to play outside their small divisions.
 
It seems like as each day passes we are a day closer to the season either getting postponed to the spring or cancelled completely.
 
I believe that the Pac 12 has also cancelled their non-conference games. It should be noted that the B10 and P12 both play 9 conference games while the SEC plays 8. That means it would cost SEC schools 4 games if they decide to follow the same arbitrary "safety" plan.

I'm hoping the SEC hold tough and plays a full schedule.

If the Big Ten is cancelling these games, they should take advantage of the open weeks and reschedule the games to spread them out. Why not stagger the games so that there are at least a few games every week. It would allow for extra bye weeks so that if kids do get covid, they may not even miss a game.

If there won't be fans at games, or at least a reduced number, then why not play games on weeknights? Play Rutgers vs Maryland on a Wednesday and allow them both to have 10 days off or maybe more until the next game.
 
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