Tag: Big Ten

Report: JUCO football will move to a spring season

Max Olson of The Athletic reported today that the National Junior College Athletic Association is expected to announce Monday that…

Max Olson of The Athletic reported today that the National Junior College Athletic Association is expected to announce Monday that it will be moving its football season to the spring.

The news comes after conferences including the Big Ten and Pac-12 announcing conference-only schedules for the fall season and the Ivy League cancelling their falls seasons entirely.

Though there is still time before the season is scheduled to kick off in early September, there are now more and more indications of the season being pushed back or not being able to happen at all.

You may remember before March Madness when the Ivy League cancelled their conference tournament days before other conferences were forced to do the same.

If that trend means anything, the likelihood of college football being cancelled this fall seems to be increasing every time news breaks about schedule changes and cancellations.

Here’s what Olson had to say about JUCO football and its decision to move to a spring season:

The National Junior College Athletic Association is expected to announce Monday that it will move to a spring football season, two head coaches told The Athletic. Teams would play up to eight games with preseason practices beginning on March 1 and the regular season beginning at the end of March and extending through the end of May.

NJCAA president and CEO Dr. Christopher Parker and the NJCAA’s presidential advisory council announced their recommendation to move the majority of its sports to spring seasons on Thursday. The NJCAA board of regents will meet Monday to determine the official plan. Parker confirmed to The Athletic that an eight-game spring football schedule is “the direction it would be heading in.”

“We would like to play football this fall,” Parker said. “But I think from a national perspective, moving it is probably the right decision holistically.”

The recruiting impact of this news aside, there seems to be higher and higher chance each day that there will be no Wisconsin football this fall let alone none all year.

How this may affect the NFL draft, player eligibility and the NFL dreams of players around the country is an issue far-off in the distance. But if the NJCAA is logistically able to play a spring season it would not be surprising if FBS conferences followed suit and found a way to play the 2020-21 season.

Chances of college football in the fall are dwindling

With recent announcements by the Ivy League, PAC 12 and Big Ten Conferences, it feels like the idea of football in the fall is a long shot.

It has been a total of 121 days since the sports world came to a stand still. A total of four months since any athletic competitions have taken place on the Forty Acres or ones that have involved the University of Texas. The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were cancelled. As were the NCAA tournaments to crown new national champions. The Longhorns promising start in baseball was halted. The historic start by the Texas Longhorns women’s softball team interrupted.

The hope was that after those four months that we might see the Texas Longhorns football team take the field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 5th. The chances of that opening kickoff against the South Florida Bulls seems like the longest of longshots with each passing day. While other countries are seeing a return to their sports leagues, football doesn’t feel like much of a possibility.

Each day there has been news about conference leadership having meetings about how sports can return with the health and safety of the athletes and staff in mind. However, when the Big Ten cancelled all non-conference games more doubt started to creep in. Not to mention that came off the heels of the Ivy League cancelling all fall sports. Then the PAC 12 and ACC were both rumored to follow the lead of the Big Ten.

“One thing we have to realize that this is not a fait accompli that we’re gonna have sports in the fall,” Warren said. “We may not have sports in the fall. We may not have a college football season in the Big Ten.” – USA TODAY Sports via the Detroit Free Press

Hope. It is something that we have all held on to for the last several months. Trying to go about a semblance of a normal life believing that we could very well have football. Was it having faith that sports would return or was it being naive? If the commissioner of a major conference doesn’t believe that we will have sports, why should we? It didn’t stop with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren either.

The SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has yet to make a decision on cancelling non-conference games. However, his recent statement echoed the sentiment of Warren. Sankey stated his concern for football this fall as “high to very high” according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.

“We are running out of time to correct and get things right.”

The PAC 12 followed the decision to cancel the non-conference games and it was recently reported commissioner Larry Scott tested positive for COVID-19. It almost feels impossible that we do see football and while others have come to grips with that idea, some of us held onto hope.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been bullish on the idea of playing football this fall and it starting on time. That was his stance back in late May. A little over a month later, is he still feeling that way? In response to the two conferences that have announced the changes to their schedules, if feels as if Bowlsby is in no hurry to make a decision.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports recently published an article discussing where Bowlsby currently sits.

“We need to do what our doctors and our scientists are telling us, which is move slowly ahead and constantly reevaluate,” Bowlsby told CBS Sports on Thursday. “The virus is going to decide whether we’re ready and able to play.”

He goes on to say that the Big 12 commissioner wasn’t happy with the quick decision from Warren. In a time where all the power five schools should be in unison, they are very much operating on their own.

“[Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren] never gave any indication that this is what they were going to do,” Bowlsby said. “In fact, he told us this morning at some length that he was not going to surprise anybody and that he would get to us in advance.”

Bob Bowlsby and the Big 12 are aiming for a concrete decision in late July. That deadline would put them just over five weeks away from the start of the college football season.

Michigan State received $55.6 million in payouts from the Big Ten last fiscal year

Michigan State has earned $55.6 million in payouts from the Big Ten in their revenue share from the last fiscal year.

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The Big Ten Conference had their fiscal year end on June 30, and the conference brought in $781,5 million in the last fiscal year. From that revenue pool, Michigan State earned $55.6 million in payouts from the last year.

The Big Ten actually had the highest per-school payouts last year, which might surprise some who view the SEC as the big money conference. It is important to note, however, that the Big Ten makes large revenue from both football AND basketball, whereas the SEC is highly reliant on football and has less basketball revenue.

Below are the per-school payout breakdowns from each conference. Note that some of these conferences have some caveats. For example, in the Big Ten, Maryland and Rutgers received a smaller payout.

  • Big Ten: $55.6 million
  • Big-12: $38.2 million to $42 million
  • ACC: $27.6 million to $34 million
  • Pac-12: $32.2 million
  • SEC: $45.3 million

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Desmond Howard shows bitterness over Notre Dame’s independence

At least Desmond Howard knows his opinion on Notre Dame shouldn’t count for anything.

I put about as much stock in whatever it is Desmond Howard has to say about Notre Dame as I did whenever Mark May would discuss them years ago on ESPN.

I don’t have proof of this but I’m fairly certain the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner has never actually said a kind thing about Notre Dame.

That was again the case Friday morning when Howard was a part of an ESPN panel that discussed what happens with college football’s season if out of conference games are canceled across the board.

Of course Notre Dame got brought up and of course Howard had thoughts.

“I might not be the best guy to ask this question to because I’ve always felt that Notre Dame was always given this special pass and they just enjoy this independence, and that they never had to join a conference”

“So now if this ends up being a situation that we do have a season and under the guidelines that people are talking now where it’s just people will play within their conference, and they’re left out in the cold because of decisions that they made, not to ever join the conference when they had the opportunity to join the ACC, then I think that’s their problem. It’s just coming back to bite them in the butt. So I don’t have a problem with a team or school that thought they are beyond joining the conference, and now because teams are playing within their conference that they get left out in the cold.” – Desmond Howard on ESPN – July 10, 2020

Just a kind reminder to Mr. Howard that Notre Dame tried to join a conference for years and years but it was your beloved University of Michigan that kept that from happening.  Then Notre Dame became a money making machine in the world of college football and Michigan and the Big Ten suddenly wanted them in.

I’m not going to lie, I get a lot of enjoyment when Notre Dame’s independence angers the masses like it has, does and will continue to do for years and years to come.

ACC updates status of football in 2020

Will the ACC follow suit with the Big Ten and only play conference football games in 2020? Find out the latest right here.

The Big Ten announced Thursday that they’ll only be playing football against each other during the 2020 college football season.

Many speculated and reported that other conferences would quickly follow suit.  Now this isn’t to say that won’t happen, plenty still expect the same 24 hours later but none have officially announced the decision yet.

The ACC was believed to be one of those conferences but Commissioner John Swofford said Friday that any announcement in regards to the 2020 football season won’t be coming until late in July.

Read the full statement below.

If you’ve followed this site for any matter of time you’re aware that I’m not optimistic about our chances of getting football in 2020, as much as I want to be wrong.

However, I do feel like the Big Ten perhaps jumped the gun a bit in regards to calling off out of conference games this fall.  You can have those conversations with other commissioners and athletic directors but is it necessary to make a final decision already?

We’re still almost two full months until college football is supposed to kickoff.  Again, I’m not saying the Big Ten won’t ultimately be seen as right, but why the rush to be first as it clearly ticked off others.

For my money I’m not very hopeful that the ACC or any other conference for that matter will have a different fate, but again, just why the rush to be first on the Big Ten’s part?

I’m not betting the ACC waiting results in a different decision but why not at least give it a shot?

College football has its Saul-on-the-road-to-Damascus moment

The fate of the 2020 college football season is up in the air.

(This post was originally published by Matt Zemek on Trojans Wire.)

No one is trying to convert anyone else to Christianity here. The Bible is a great work of literature, regardless of whether you believe in God.

One of the more famous stories of the New Testament is Saul on the road to Damascus, a story of encounter with God and transformation into a very different person compared to the version which existed before.

College football is arriving at a Saul-on-the-road-to-Damascus moment. What we are seeing right now will necessarily transform college football compared to what it was before.

The obvious question is, “Will the transformation — obviously painful and difficult in its early stages — bring about the kinds of changes which will reflect and improved and more just set of conditions for various groups, ideally as many as possible?”

Some of these changes aren’t going to emerge immediately; it will take years for them to be appreciated or to be implemented, if not both. Some changes could occur sooner rather than later, if enough political will exists in the college sports industry. Some changes can’t easily fit into either of the two categories I just described.

Let’s offer a brief list of some big-picture issues college football ought to wrestle with, noting that the sport might not actually have the courage or wisdom to confront all of them:

  1. Coaching contracts — Though it is true that Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney bring in enormous amounts of revenue to a university, such that their high-dollar deals aren’t financially reckless or irresponsible (at least not on their own merits in a narrow context), it is just as true that dozens of relatively mediocre coaches shouldn’t be making out like bandits in the buyout game. Universities need to be a lot more responsible in offering high-end compensation which is tied to performance, while reducing guaranteed money. Coaches are not going to starve; they just ought to expect more of their money to come from achievement, which they should be able to appreciate along with the rest of us. That is hardly an unreasonable ask.
  2. Contracts and arrangements, broadly viewed — Consider all of the various contracts or deals in place in college football right now. Start with the College Football Playoff contract running through the 2025 season. Continue with various bowl contracts, future nonconference scheduling agreements, and apparel agreements such as Under Armour with UCLA. Who gets to decide which contracts get torn up and which ones remain intact? Will parties in these agreements find workable solutions or go to court instead? A primary thought here: Given the revenue shortfalls at various major universities, it might be in everyone’s best financial interest to scrap the current playoff format and put in a 16-team playoff for 2021 to begin to recoup lost revenues. I’m not recommending that plan; I am merely saying it could be viewed as an urgent need for a lot of schools and conferences. Does college football think it has to retain the current playoff contract, or does it move to start from scratch? Would this be a political firefight, or would it meet with widespread agreement? So much to consider…
  3. Athlete compensation — The fact that college football hasn’t yet been postponed for the fall (as the Ivy League has done) at the time this column is being written on the afternoon of July 10 is, itself, a loud statement about the extent to which schools desperately need to play games this fall. Stop and think about that simple point. This is SERIOUS BUSINESS, a matter of immense importance. If college football players are THIS important to the economic and financial health of the schools they represent, that makes them — in my eyes and the eyes of many others — “essential workers.” What should a decent, humane, well-functioning society provide for essential workers? Hazard pay. Paid sick leave. Guaranteed health care. College sports has a great opportunity to rethink its relationship with the athletes who make this economic engine hum. Oh yes, the finances are going to be a bitch here, no argument… but maybe that is precisely what could create larger playoff structures. Let’s be clear: If athletes play this fall, they would — in an ideal world — receive take-home paychecks plus other worker protections. That isn’t going to happen — not for 2020 — but it can certainly happen for 2021 and beyond if there are enough humane, enlightened, compassionate, forward-thinking leaders in college sports who now see — like Saul on the road to Damascus — just how much they have demanded of athletes over the years. It’s time to reshape the compensation model in favor of athletes.
  4. Scheduling — The move to conference-only scheduling as an adjustment by the Big Ten brings up a larger discussion about scheduling imbalances in college football. As it stands now, lots of ACC and SEC teams barely play each other in five- or seven-year segments of time. This is a chance for those conferences to remake their schedules to guarantee that teams play each other once every two years. The format: A “3-5-5” plan in which every SEC or ACC team would have three fixed opponents, but then rotate the other 10 teams in the conference in two blocks of five every other year. This is an opportunity for conferences to fix scheduling problems.
  5. Conference realignment: geography edition — NO, NOT AGAIN! But wait… doesn’t this make sense now? Doesn’t it make sense to admit that long-distance commutes within conferences are stupid, and that in order to save money over the long haul, conferences should be tight geographical clusters? West Virginia belongs in the ACC or Big Ten much more than in the Big 12. Nebraska should move back to the Big 12. Break up the AAC into its northern and southern members and form new conferences based on geography. No more Temple-versus-SMU conference games.
  6. Conference realignment: budgetary edition — Yes, you might be exhausted and cranky at the notion of realigning the conferences yet again — one decade after significant changes in the early 2010s — but with the Group of Five schools taking huge financial hits, maybe this is the actual set of circumstances which forces college football to separate the upper-tier schools from the lower-tier schools in a more conscious way. This is not something which can or will happen immediately, but it certainly needs to be revisited now. A first question is how many Conference USA/Sun Belt/MAC programs might consider downscaling to the FCS as a result of their losses they will incur. Once we get a sense of how the financials look (and how a new playoff proposal or something similar might address those shortfalls), a remapping of the FBS could begin in earnest.

These are just some of the big-picture topics facing college football in the short and long term. Hopefully, a lot of fresh thinking — leading to positive change — will emerge from the pain and hardship this industry is feeling right now, and will continue to suffer in the coming years.

ESPN: How does the Big Ten’s decision impact Notre Dame

A look at what could be ahead for Notre Dame in the 2020 season after the Big Ten decided to play a conference only schedule.

After yesterday’s huge news that the Big Ten will only play conference games in the 2020 season and the potential for other conferences to follow is something worth tracking for Notre Dame faithful. ESPN’s Heather Dinich and Mark Schlabach looked into the conundrum the Irish could be facing in this season.

With just one game schedule against the Big Ten this year, against Wisconsin, this may not seem like a massive deal, but it is. Dinich and Schlabach view it like this, “For the independent outlier, this is a predicament, but there is a solution. First, losing the Wisconsin game is significant, but the Fighting Irish could overcome that alone. The problem comes if the Pac-12 does follow suit, because then Notre Dame would lose two additional games, in Stanford and USC. The most likely and expected scenario there would be for Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and ACC commissioner John Swofford to extend their partnership and have the Irish fill the rest of their schedule with ACC games.”

This does seem like the most logical solution, already half of the Irish’s previously scheduled opponents reside in the ACC. Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville would most likely stay on the docket, but who would the Irish add? It completely depends on what Swofford and other AD’s decide to do. There are rumors the Big Ten could play 10 conference games, but at the moment nothing is set in stone. If the ACC goes to conference only and plays 8 games, I would love to see the Irish add NC State, Florida State, North Carolina or Boston College. If the Irish join the ACC for the 2020 season, which opponents would you like to see them face?

Gators News: July 10, 2020

Another week is almost in the books on this Friday and what a week it was for North American sports — particularly in the collegiate realm.

Another week is almost in the books on this Friday and what a week it was for North American sports — particularly in the collegiate realm.

Here is a quick breakdown of the latest voices from USA TODAY Sports on what has transpired over the past 48 hours.

Here is the rest of the news from the Gator Nation.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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What the Big Ten’s schedule announcement means for the Badgers’ playoff chances

News broke yesterday that the Big Ten is expected to move their 2020 football season to a conference-only format, the next domino to fall…

News broke yesterday that the Big Ten is expected to move their 2020 football season to a conference-only format, the next domino to fall in what is already becoming a season like no other.

This news eliminates the Badgers’ matchups against Southern Illinois, Appalachian State and Notre Dame and removes many intriguing matchups from the early-season out-of-conference schedule.

Seen above, those games include Ohio State v Oregon, Michigan v Washington, Iowa v Iowa State and Penn State v Virginia Tech.

There are obviously still question marks surrounding the season and whether it will be able to happen.

One thing we can do now, though, is look at yesterday’s announcement and see how it affects the Badgers’ conference title and College Football Playoff chances.

My one takeaway: a conference-only schedule dramatically helps the Badgers’ shot at the College Football Playoff and sets up for the same scenario we’ve seen two of the last three years–a Big Ten Championship meeting with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

In their three out-of-conference games Paul Chryst and his team had two legitimate matchups to win in contests against Notre Dame and Appalachian State, the No. 13 and No. 19 schools respectively in CBSSports’ current Top 25.

What those two bouts would have done was first pose a significant threat to the Badgers’ slim chances of running the table, but also come in the two weeks leading up to Michigan and Minnesota, arguably the two most important games on the team’s schedule.

So the fact the team would’ve had a loss or two aside, having two tough contests before the two most important games on the schedule would have made it even more challenging for Chryst’s squad to continue their dominance in the Big Ten West.

So, what does the conference-only format leave the Badgers now?

First, the team now has Indiana to start the season before Michigan and Minnesota–this obviously assuming the conference does not rearrange the schedule which is very possible.

Not that Indiana is a guaranteed victory, but having an easier game to start the season and then time off before must-win games will be good for the team and increase their chances at victory.

Second, with Notre Dame and Appalachian State off the table the team has a legitimate shot at running the table before the conference championship–setting them up for a win-and-in game for the College Football Playoff like we saw in 2017.

Also, with those schools off the schedule the number of ranked opponents on the horizon dropped from five to three with two of those contests coming in Weeks 2 and 3.

Here are the 2019 records, in order, of the Badgers’ 2020 opponents:

Indiana: 8-5 (5-4)

Michigan: 9-4 (6-3)

Minnesota: 11-2 (7-2)

Maryland: 3-9 (1-8)

Illinois: 6-7 (4-5)

Northwestern: 3-9 (1-8)

Purdue: 4-8 (3-6)

Nebraska: 5-7 (3-6)

Iowa: 10-3 (6-2)

If the team can start out hot and go 3-0 against their first three opponents, running the table with this schedule becomes an increasingly-likely feat.

Much is still up in the air about the 2020 college football season but after yesterday’s news–if the season is able to happen–a Badger v Buckeye Big Ten Championship for a place in the College Football Playoff became a probable outcome. Will the Badgers finally get over the hump and take home their first Big Ten title since 2011? That is yet to be seen. But if you want to see Paul Chryst’s team in the playoff yesterdays news was great for those chances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Ten announces teams will play conference-only games for fall of 2020

The Big Ten Conference has announced that all fall sports will be comprised of conference-only matchups for the 2020 season due to COVID-19.

The Big Ten Conference announced that their schools will participate in conference-only games for all sports this fall.  The decision came Thursday, one day after the Ivy League cancelled all fall sports for the 2020 season.

This decision by the Big Ten is based on the uncertainties that are presented by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, reaching new highs in the United States.

“We are facing uncertain and unprecedented times, and the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, game officials, and others associated with our sports programs and campuses remain our number one priority,” the conference released in a statement this Thursday.

Big Ten fall sports include football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, and women’s volleyball.  The decision was made based on medical advice.

This now begs the question of what other conferences will do to take action in securing their athletes safety.  The Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and SEC have a spotlight on themselves following a bold move by the Big Ten.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that the SEC “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 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,” Sankey also stated.

Since fall college athletes return to team activities on June 1st, there have been COVID-19 cases popping up in a number of schools including Ohio State, Clemson, LSU and Texas.  Ohio State suspended practices and team activities on Wednesday as a safety precaution.

The Big Ten’s statement included that the conference is “also prepared not to play in order to ensure the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes should the circumstances so dictate.”

Georgia football’s non-conference games scheduled this season include Virginia, East Tennessee State, Louisiana Monroe and of course, Georgia Tech.  Should the SEC move to conference-only games, the Dawgs’ schedule will only get tougher, potentially adding matchups such as LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Mississippi State.