It’s been a tough year for everybody with a global pandemic causing all of us to re-think how we do day to day life. It appears that the Big Ten has done some rethinking as well, we just didn’t know about it.
ESPN college football reporter, Heather Dinich, shared via Twitter that the Big Ten has had a change of heart when it comes to scheduling. The conference presidents and chancellors met on November 5 to approve schedule changes, but only in conference play. This would allow teams with canceled games, who have had no COVID-19 issues to play each other, even if it would be a repeat matchup. The decision for those two teams to play would have to be made by noon on Wednesday for a Saturday game.
If the reports are true, the newly added change would have had no impact on the Big Ten season thus far as no more than one game has been canceled in a week. Because everyone else was playing except for Ohio State and Maryland, there was no one else to play. However, this could have huge implications in the coming weeks.
It's possible we could see more of the scheduling shuffle we saw today in the @pac12. On Nov. 5, @bigten presidents and chancellors approved a process that allows 2 teams w/o COVID issues that have had games cancelled in the same week to play each other. (more)
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) November 14, 2020
Ryan Day has made it known that he would certainly be in favor of teams being allowed to find an opponent should a game not be played due to the novel coronavirus cases. Opening the schedule up to teams outside the conference would make that much easier, but it looks like the Big Ten is at least offering a little hope to teams who have been COVID-19 free. Maybe an out of conference step comes later. Maybe not.
Either way, as for now, Ohio State is scheduled to take on Indiana in a top ten matchup this Saturday… assuming all parties stay healthy. Let’s hope so.
[lawrence-related id=40270]
[lawrence-related id=40307]
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
Download the USA TODAY SportsWire app to follow Buckeyes Wire and your other favorite teams in the Apple Store for iPhones and Google Play for Android devices.