Since it was announced earlier this month that the Big Ten Conference would be playing conference-only games this fall, Michigan Wolverines fans have been stunned to see what the soccer schedule will look like now. It seems that the wait may not be much longer.
Both Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune and Tom Dienhart of the Big Ten Network said Thursday that the conference will announce its agenda in the near future and that Dienhart will go so far as to say it could be done “perhaps as soon as” the next 24-48 hours, “citing a Big Ten source. If it doesn’t come out before the end of this week, the beginning of next week seems to be the longest end of the timeline.
The Big Ten source tells me that the September 5 start date for Big Ten seems likely. That was the league’s original start date. The schedule should be out soon, perhaps as soon as “the next 24-48 hours,” by source.
– Tom Dienhart (@ TomDienhart1) July 30, 2020
The Big Ten is looking to start playing on September 5 and will reportedly have 3-5 open dates built into the 10-game calendar in case modifications need to be made due to pandemic and coronavirus testing. The schedules are also expected to be filled with divisional games so that the highest risk contests at the conference get out of the way early.
For Michigan, it stands to reason that this could mean that the dates with Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana and Michigan State could take place in the first part of the announced list. Maryland, Rutgers, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are also slated for this season. They will also need to fill in one more date with a Big Ten West showdown with the two seemingly most likely schools being Illinois and Iowa, as we wrote earlier this month.
We thought it would be possible for the conference to build a timeline with some games in advance that potentially had fewer risks, but they are giving themselves room for maneuver with the open dates they have scheduled. We will have to wait and see how the calendar develops, and, of course, if they really end up playing, but in theory we are one step closer to football.
