Big Ten Will Play a Conference Only Schedule for Fall 2020 Sports

The Big Ten announced on July 9th that it will only play conference games in all fall sports in 2020. This includes men’s and women’s soccer and cross country, women’s volleyball, and of course, football. This is less drastic than the Ivy League’s cancelling of fall sports, but still a big deal, especially for football, where some big non conference matchups were slated. Among those are Michigan at Washington, Iowa and Iowa State’s annual clash, Ohio State at Oregon, and Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

The reasoning for going to conference only games, according to the Big Ten, is that the conference would have greater control over testing of athletes and other logistics, such as rearranging the football schedule. Ominously, the possibility of not having college football, or the other sports in the fall is also on the table should the pandemic so dictate.

Here’s some highlights from last September’s game between 11th ranked Michigan and #13 Wisconsin, won convincingly by the Badgers 35-14.