With Big Ten and Pac-12 announcing the switch to conference-only times, there’s a good chance that the other three Power 5 conferences will join them sometime soon. It’s not Plan A, but it could save the fall college football season.
COVID-19 has changed the sports landscape, and with professional leagues and now university conferences trying to start again amid a pandemic, adjustments are being made to try to save their respective seasons. The Big Ten made the first move, and the Pac-12 did the same at the end of last week at the college level, leaving ACC, Big 12, and SEC to discuss whether they should follow suit. It seems likely, even if the amount of games is in the air.
Still, the Big Ten has the initial plan for conferences to share:
- A 10 game schedule with no weeks off. This allows games to be rescheduled if dates are postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
- Divisional games in the first half of the schedule.. A 10-game schedule shortened to six games provides an undisputed divisional champion if the season is shortened (and also provides the opportunity for the season to be completed in the spring if six games are fully played in the fall). An undisputed divisional champion is, of course, important to the conference championship purposes, which are a great source of income.
- Games between divisions in the later half of the schedule. Some rivalry games are played across divisional lines, but those must wait until the second half of the season to make sure teams are more likely to advance for at least a six-game schedule against divisional opponents.
- Flexible Dates. Conferences have at least 13 dates to play a maximum of 10 games. That number of available dates could be extended to 14 if College Football Playoff and its FBS members agree to shorten the prep work if the conference championship games scheduled for the first week of December are delayed by a week. Playoff director Bill Hancock previously said he believes that decision can be made and done without hesitation if the need arises.
Conference-only hours give Power 5 conferences and other FBS members the flexibility to schedule, as well as the ability to apply universal protocols across their campuses and athletic departments. Non-conference games would complicate the process, with separate conferences with different tests, quarantine and isolation guidelines that also try to agree on dates that provide little or no flexibility if a delay is required.
Programming within the conferences will take some time, but it is not difficult. In fact, the exercise will provide conference offices with opportunities to engage in dreamy engagements at the conference that we otherwise would not have seen in 2020.
When is the deadline for a season in the coronavirus era? A six-game schedule would require the season to start in late October. There are nine Saturdays combined in October and November, meaning October 24 or October 31 are the last Saturdays a fall season could start.
What we could also see is an extension of games throughout the week, with games spread from Tuesday to Saturday. This allows conferences to work with television networks to provide as many live events as possible without much overlap. This will allow for higher ratings, more advertising revenue, and again more scheduling flexibility. Also, the idea of playing games on weekdays is easier if you don’t expect fans in the stands. Games could go from Tuesday to Thursday night if a big game is canceled on Thursday night a week before the start. Again, dancing can be difficult, but it is doable, and perhaps even a need to squeeze the most money out of games to keep some sports departments afloat.
247 Sports recommendations extrapolated from debates in conference offices:
- A 10 game calendar must be played with an understanding of at least six games to crown conference and division champions.
- Flexibility between conferences and television channels to play from Tuesday to Saturday., with some games moving with notices from one to two weeks. The games would avoid the NFL schedule.
- Expand the College Football Playoff to eight teams during one season. Without big games other than conferences (Ohio State in Oregon, Alabama vs. USC, etc.), it will be harder than ever to properly judge an SEC team against a Pac-12 team or a Big Ten team against an ACC team. . Power 5 champions receive an automatic offer and two other Power 5 teams receive invitations. The Group of 5 high school is also invited to the playoffs. Think of it as early proof of what an expanded tiebreak might look like in the future, but without any promise, it will continue due to this year’s circumstances.
- Create a bubble for the playoff teams. The eight teams selected for the tiebreaker should play at one site in late December through early January. Players will be out of class work during the winter break, allowing them to travel to a city, where they will be quarantined for up to three weeks around the world to ensure the tiebreaker takes place. Take the lessons learned from the NBA and use it as a model for a playoff in a city attended by up to eight teams.
What a schedule would look like on the Power 5
Divisional games take precedence, even for programs with rivals between divisions. The goal is to play at least six games to properly crown the divisional champions. The Big 12 does not have to worry about this due to its lack of divisions, so rivalries will continue.
Ten-game schedules were the norm until 1973. Six-game schedules were the last commonplace in the early 1900s, when soccer was regional. One thing was more common in the last more than 100 years: Largest conferences generally played at least six conference games. If the seasons were shortened to a six-game, conference-only schedule, Power 5 conferences would not only keep that tradition alive, but there would be a precedent to crown divisional champions and / or conference champions after a season of six games.
Big ten
OHIO STATE
Rutgers
in the state of Michigan
at Penn State
Indiana
in Maryland
Michigan
in Illinois
Iowa
Nebraska
in Wisconsin * (2016)
* Note: Ohio State last traveled to Wisconsin in 2016 and the game could well be a preview of the Big Ten Championship the following week.
SECOND
ALABAMA
at Ole Miss
Mississippi State
at LSU
in Arkansas
Texas A&M
Brown
in Kentucky *
Georgia
in Tennessee
South Carolina*
* Note: Alabama last traveled to Kentucky in 2013 and last received South Carolina in 2009.
Pac-12
OREGON
Washington
in Cal
Stanford
in Washington state
in the state of Oregon
USC
Arizona State
in Arizona
in colorado
Utah
ACC
CLEMSON
Louisville
at Boston College
in the state of Florida
NC State
Syracuse
at Wake Forest
at Notre Dame *
Virginia
at Georgia Tech
Miami
* Note: Clemson was already scheduled to travel to Notre Dame for a non-conference game. The showdown remains on the calendar, but as a conference game with the Fighting Irish chosen as an honorary member of the ACC.
12 big
OKLAHOMA
Baylor
in Texas
in the state of Iowa
Oklahoma State
TCU
West Virginia
Kansas State
Kansas
Texas Tech
in the state of Oklahoma *
* Note: The Big 12 teams would have to play against an opponent twice to fulfill their 10 game allowance. Rivalry games should be repeated confrontation if possible.
More thoughts …
There’s also the matter of Notre Dame, a Power 5 school without a conference. The ACC is open to allowing Fighting Irish to join the conference on an interim basis, providing four more unique matchups in a 15-team conference.
The SEC will discuss multiple options for scheduling soccer on Monday, but a conference-only schedule will include eight to 10 games, a source within the conference tells 247Sports. The idea is to schedule as many games as possible with the goal of playing at least six games (all divisional) by the end of the season (13 dates).
Meanwhile, the Pac-12 appears destined for a delayed start to the season. Mandatory training was scheduled to start on Monday, but is on hold indefinitely. FBS members agreed in June that a six-week acclimatization period (two weeks of training and a four-week preseason camp) was needed to properly prepare for the season. If that’s still the case, the Pac-12 may already have delayed the start of its season by at least a week. The six-week acclimatization period for those playing in Week 1 begins July 24 with meetings and tours. The preseason camps are tentatively scheduled to begin on August 7.
Regardless of what Power 5 conferences decide, be flexible. The ultimate goal is a 10-game season, but cutting the schedule to six games is feasible before a call in late fall to delay until spring or fall 2021.
In other words, decisions between conference leadership teams will not end with conference-only schedules. Adjustments will need to be made when the season begins.
