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Big Ten Releases New NU Schedule
The
Big Ten released its revised, conference-only schedule earlier this
week, amid speculation that it was an exercise of arranging deck chairs
on a sinking ship.
The new schedule removes all non-conference games, adds a tenth
conference matchup, and gives all teams five home and five away games:
For
Northwestern, the new schedule is little-changed from its previous
conference lineup, with the notable exception of the addition of
Michigan, which is now the season-ending game for both schools. The
last time that NU finished a season by playing Michigan was 1934 (the
'Cats beat Michigan, 13 to 6, in Ann Arbor).
NU is slated to open the season at Penn State, followed by a home opener vs. Wisconsin, a daunting start to the season.
It's not known if any of the home games will serve as a "homecoming"
game; NU had been slated to host Nebraska for homecoming before the
COVID pandemic. Northwestern will NOT have a 2020 on-campus reunion--
the school will combine 2020 and 2021 reunions next year, so it is
possible that there won't be a homecoming game this year.
Of course, it is still more likely than not that there won't be any games this year. We'll find out soon enough.
Other developments within the last three days:
- Big Ten
preseason camps began on August 7. Initially, only the first two days
were supposed to be helmet-only, no-pad days. However, on August 8 the
conference announced that it would remain in the no-pad "phase one"
stage indefinitely.
- The conference also announced that it will test all players two times per week at a minimum.
- Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren stated, per the Detroit Free Press, that he prefers pushing the season to spring 2021.
- There are reports that "some" B1G schools now favor cancellation.
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