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SBJ College: Big Ten Decision Reshapes 2020 Football


I was looking forward to my first trip to Camp Randall Stadium on Sept. 19 to see Wisconsin play Appalachian State. Cancel those plans.

Here is what's cookin' on campus.

   

CONFERENCE-ONLY FOOTBALL FOR BIG TEN A MAJOR SHIFT

  • The Big Ten became the first major conference to shorten its 2020 football season because of COVID-19 when it decided to reduce the fall schedule to 10 conference games only. The next question is how many other conferences will follow? Within hours of the announcement this afternoon, there was already chatter that the ACC and Pac-12 would adopt similar changes. The ACC doesn’t plan an announcement tonight, but tomorrow reportedly could be different. Pac-12 CEOs were already scheduled to meet tomorrow, sources said, so the conference could have a decision by then as well.

  • Most schools and conferences had pointed toward Aug. 1 as the goal to figure out what the 2020 season might look like, but the Big Ten clearly had made up its mind. As one conference official said, this scheduling model lets the Big Ten maximize flexibility during a time of great uncertainty. The regular season could start on time in early September, or be delayed until late September and still finish on time. By reducing the schedule to 10 games, the conference could make adjustments if a school gets hit with an outbreak.

  • Still, the timing of the announcement is a bit curious. It seems that the Big Ten could have waited three more weeks to make the same statement, but this does give those non-conference opponents more time to find a replacement game.

  • The flurry of breaking news throughout the afternoon almost felt like a coordinated effort. Commissioners from the P5 conferences have said they’re in contact practically every day. Even during his retirement comments, ACC Commissioner John Swofford said the collegiality between the commissioners was the best he could remember. During their commissioners call today, however, new Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren reportedly gave no hints that this announcement was coming.

  • Each conference still has to make its own decision about a scheduling model and it seems the SEC and the Big 12 might not be so eager to make any declarations. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby released this statement: “The Big Ten decisions are interesting and provide additional information to inform our discussions. At this time our medical and scientific advisors have suggested we should move ahead slowly and with constant re-evaluation. We plan to continue to prepare for all available scenarios until we are informed that some are no longer viable.”

  • And here’s SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey: “The Southeastern Conference will continue to meet regularly with our campus leaders in the coming weeks, guided by medical advisors, to make the important decisions necessary to determine the best path forward related to the SEC fall sports. We recognize the challenges ahead and know the well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans must remain at the forefront of those decisions.”

 

Iowa-Iowa State is among the rivalries impacted by the Big Ten's football decision

 

WHAT DOES BIG TEN'S MOVE MEAN?

  • This is the first major test for Commissioner Kevin Warren. Even though the news release spotlighted the collaboration between university presidents, ADs, the conference office and medical experts, Warren is the one setting the agenda. How this plays out will reflect directly on him. The Big Ten under previous commissioner Jim Delany was known for taking bold steps, and Warren is fitting right into that profile as a trendsetter.

  • If the ACC and Pac-12 follow the Big Ten’s lead, the non-conference opponents from the Group of 5 and FCS could take a hit. As of this afternoon, the ADs I talked to weren’t certain how they would be affected. Chances are they’ll try to reschedule, but if that doesn’t work, Big Ten schools could be on the hook for any game cancellation fee, which is often a fraction of the full guarantee.

  • The Big Ten is typically among the top two or three conferences in the country, with some of the biggest brands in college football. Several high-profile, non-conference matchups involving some of those schools just got wiped away from the 2020 schedule. The ones we'll miss the most:

    • Sept. 5: Michigan at Washington
    • Sept. 12: Ohio State at Oregon
    • Sept. 12: Penn State at Virginia Tech
    • Sept. 19: Appalachian State at Wisconsin
    • Sept. 19: Maryland at West Virginia
    • Sept. 26: BYU at Minnesota
    • Oct. 3: Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin

  • Wisconsin is the only Big Ten opponent on Notre Dame’s schedule. The Irish play six ACC opponents and those games will likely stand if the ACC goes conference-only, even though they’re not officially a member in football. They’ve got Stanford and USC from the Pac-12. BYU not only loses its game against Minnesota, but a Week 2 matchup in Provo against Michigan State

 

SKEPTICISM GROWING AMONG FBS ADs FOR 2020 SEASON

  • Even before the Big Ten's news, the prospects for a 2020 football season had FBS college leaders more concerned than a few months ago as the coronavirus cases have surged again. We’ve been saying for a few weeks that the tone coming from ADs is more discouraged because of the number of positive tests on some campuses, plus the general population. The Big Ten validated that this afternoon when it decided to go to a schedule of conference games only, making it the first Power 5 conference to commit to a different kind of season. Stadium's Brett McMurphy put some numbers to it today with results from a survey of FBS ADs -- 115 out of 130 responded.

  • The takeaway? ADs are becoming more skeptical about football season:

    • What are the chances for the season to start on time? Only 22% of ADs in the Power 5 believe that will happen, compared to 31% of ADs in the Group of 5.

    • Nearly half of the ADs in the P5 believe college football will get off to a delayed start in the fall and play a schedule of conference games only.

    • Three-quarters of them think the season, whether it’s played in the fall or spring, will be delayed.

    • A growing number of ADs (31%) think the 2020 season could be played in the spring.

  • Compared to his last survey in April, very few ADs across FBS (10%) believe a 12-game schedule is possible if the season doesn’t start on time. That’s down 31% from April.

 

IVY LEAGUE DECISION DOESN'T RATTLE FBS

  • The Ivy League canceled fall sports yesterday, including football, but left open the option for bringing those sports back in the spring. Feedback has been mixed so far on what this means for other conferences, especially those in the Power 5. The Big Ten didn’t shut down the fall like the Ivy, but it is shifting to a conference-only slate. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey downplayed any influence the Ivy might carry with his conference's stance on the 2020 season. “I don’t think it’s an inflection point,” Sankey told ESPN Radio.

  • The inflection point is the rise in the number of coronavirus cases, especially in the Southeast. Sankey: “I want to be optimistic, but the reality is, publicly, we have to discipline ourselves to remain healthy as a culture and that relates to some of the behaviors we’ve seen that have caused the spread to accelerate. Optimism is not reality.”

  • The Ivy League's move affects only one FBS team -- Army. The Black Knights were set to play Princeton this season at Michie Stadium. Army AD Mike Buddie put out a statement after the decision, but nothing has been announced as far as a schedule replacement. The Middletown Times Herald-Record notes Army could have an in-state option with Syracuse, which has a bye on Oct. 10.

  • Despite the Ivy's move to cancel fall sports, other FCS conferences are not making bold moves just yet. Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill told the Idaho State Journal that his conference "didn’t feel peer pressured yet." Wistrcill: "People are going to make different decisions for different reasons on different timelines." Missouri Valley Senior Associate Commissioner Patty Viverito told the Grand Forks Herald that a spring football option is a "bit premature." Viverito: "That did bubble up awful fast. I don't think we're there yet. I know that so much of the news the last two weeks has been very disconcerting about our chances for playing a full season. I'm guardedly optimistic that we can at least give it a try, knowing it could be interrupted."

 

 

SPEED READS

  • Ross Bjork yesterday hit the one-year anniversary as Texas A&M AD. He talked to 24/7 Sports about his time in College Station, including work during the pandemic. "We need our conference membership to stay together and to stay on the same page," he said of the SEC. "We do a bi-weekly conference call. We're actually talking about meeting in person sometime in the month of July." Bjork also has some summer reading courtesy of A&M men's basketball coach Buzz Williams. "One of the books that Coach Williams gave me was 'Thinking In Bets.' Basically how a poker player thinks, because they don't have all the information, but they still have to play a hand. It kind of goes through that process. Because we don't have all the information, right? It was perfect."

  • The Pensacola Bay Center is stepping up its scoreboard game ahead of the first of five years hosting the Sun Belt basketball tournaments. The Pensacola News Journal notes Prismview, the LED division of Samsung, "has been chosen as the vendor" for a center-hung scoreboard to be installed in September. The Sun Belt invested in the scoreboard project as part of moving the tournaments to Pensacola starting in 2021.

  • Despite the financial impacts of the coronavirus, South Carolina athletics finished the year in the black. AD Ray Tanner told Columbia-based WNKT-FM: "We did stay in the black once again. For 2021, it’s a daunting task.” The Columbia State notes the Gamecocks "actually saved a little money with the cancellation of spring sports and not having to travel on what projected to be a long run in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament."

  • U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement issued new guidelines this week that could force international students to leave the country if their schools only offer online courses this fall. “Definitely concerned about it,” Gonzaga AD Mike Roth told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “I know it’s causing a lot of panic and concern among international students and student-athletes and our coaches, along with plenty of (athletic directors) out there. ... We had our weekly WCC athletic directors’ call (Tuesday morning) and you look around the conference and there are a whole bunch of international athletes.”

 

Gonzaga men's basketball listed six foreign-born players on its 2019-20 roster

 

THROWBACK THURSDAY

  • It was this week in 2018 that SBJ profiled a small tech firm out of Miami called WMT. At the time, WMT had begun making a play for official website rights in the college space and in its first few years landed Arkansas, Clemson, Notre Dame, Florida State and Georgia Tech. Suddenly, this boutique digital shop was managing some of the most-trafficked college sites in the country. Fast forward two years and founder Andres Focil’s company has added Iowa and Kansas -- continuing its methodical and opportunistic growth.

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand and SBJ Esports with Adam Stern and Trent Murray. Also check out the SBJ Unpacks newsletter every Monday-Friday night, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).