Recently the Big Ten Conference announced that it will be removing all of its non-conference games for the 2020 college football season.
Though some of these games are meant to be easy wins for the conference’s powerhouse programs, some of the games that were taken off the schedule were very notable and could’ve changed the whole entire plot of the season.
Three very marquee matchups included battles between Ohio State and Oregon (two potential playoff teams), Michigan V.S. Washington, and Wisconsin V.S. Notre Dame.
Other important non-conference games that would’ve been played include the competitiveness of the Iowa V.S. Iowa State rivalry game, Wisconsin V.S. Appalachian State, and Penn State V.S. Virginia Tech.
With that being said, each team’s schedule in the conference will probably be 10 games instead of 12, meaning that there will be fewer opportunities for teams to prepare for each other.
Speaking of less time to prepare, Michigan will be one of the teams that are largely affected by having Washington, Ball State, and Arkansas State removed from their schedule, especially since they still don’t know who their starting quarterback will be.
Even though these matchups near or at the beginning of the season have been removed, there is still a lot to look forward to in this upcoming 2020 college football season (assuming it happens), and there should be a tight race on both sides of the conference.
Exactly how will a conference-only schedule impact the season? Who knows, but what we do know is that the fewer games there are the more unpredictable the season will be.
Teams like Penn State who are known for having a good record may only finish at 6-4 (if a 10 game schedule is released), while teams like Wisconsin have a better shot to go undefeated with Notre Dame and Appalachian State off of their schedule.
I am definitely excited to see how this season plays out, and it will be very interesting to see how teams will perform going forward.
Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski / USA Today Sports
