Big Ten Football Returns

The Big Ten realized that where they go that other conferences don't have to follow and after a month spent with the league watching other conferences play, the decision was made to return to the field on October 24.

The league will play an eight-game schedule with a ninth game with what I think is a really neat twist.

The ninth game will be held on championship weekend and with the top two teams in each division playing each other as usual, but the twist comes in with this- the remaining teams will play their corresponding team in the other division. 

For example, if Iowa finishes second in the Western Division and Penn State finishes in the same spot in the Eastern Division, they will play each other in week nine.

The league will announce a schedule later this week and I suppose that they will announce how the ninth game will work, with my only question being will the league be accepting of a possible rematch between the sixth-place teams for example or will they slightly modify if needed to avoid rematches.

With everyone from the three teams that voted to play in August (Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska), Big Ten players with a social media campaign, a group of Nebraska players threatening a suit of the conference, and even President Donald Trump dueling for credit for the league's about-face, the main thing that the league is going to try to play the season out and by making the decision now, if the season manages to conclude ( far from a guarantee with some games being canceled each week) the league champion has a chance to make the college football playoff.

The Big Ten has installed a more stringent policy for players that have tested positive as their players that test positive for Covid-19 will be unable able to play for 21 days, where other conferences are using a 14-day restriction. Players that fail tests will have to pass cardiac testing before a return to play and all players will take daily antigen tests before hitting the practice fields. The development of those tests may have been the largest factor in the return to the field for the Big Ten schools as the testing was unavailable for daily and time-sensitive tests at the time of the postponement.

While I'm not sure about how long the season will last because nothing will surprise me at this stage, it will feel much more normal once Ohio State and the Big Ten are back and on the gridiron.

In a world that is in desperate need of such normalcy, I'll take whatever I can get.