BREAKING NEWS: Coverage of the 2020 Big Ten Football Schedule Release | Big Ten Football

[Music] welcome in it is btn live great to have you with us dave revson and rick he's over earlier than we're normally using typical breaking news here on btn but what an exciting day it is 15 minutes from now we will have the official release of the big ten football schedule for this most unusual 2020 season we will give you all of the games coming up in 15 minutes let you know what games were added to the schedule we'll get perspective from the commissioner of the big ten kevin warren that is coming up at 9 00 a.m eastern time he will join us live so plenty going on here rick as we unveil this schedule that fans have been waiting for with baited breath yeah we'll know week by week we'll run through each team's entire schedule and we'll answer a lot of questions because dave since the big ten announced it would be a conference only 2020 season questions were out there like what would the 10th game be would it be against a divisional opponent for the second time in a same season would it be an additional crossover game when exactly would the conference schedule start a lot of debate about whether it should start on time with some additional bye weeks or perhaps start a few weeks later for the league to get a better handle on exactly where the coronavirus pandemic was headed well all those questions are about to be answered as you mentioned with the schedule release officially coming at 8 45 eastern yeah so a lot to anticipate and again it is about answering questions today there are a ton of questions out there as you said rick and in this time as we anticipate the schedule release about 14 minutes or so from now we'll talk about some of those lingering questions sherry dinardo joining us right now and coach i guess i'll put it to you what are you most interested in seeing when this schedule's released well let's look at health first health of the student ethics that's obviously been uh the emphasis with the big ten conference so i think when you talk about health of the student athletes i think there's a couple things that that you consider travel okay are we going to enter in to a new phase of traveling to play games in other words you leave saturday morning whether you get on a plane and fly to the opponent you play the game and you fly back or whether you get on a bus to go play the opponent you bust there you play the game and you bust back depending obviously on how far away the game is so so that's number one for health i think the second thing about health is spacing of games it would seem to me with only 10 games now all obviously conference games you totally control the schedule where are the bye weeks how many there are and how that's going to be organized competitively how did they pick the 10th game you know rickery mentioned is it going to be a crossover is it going to be within the division i think most of us think most likely another crossover but how is that crossover determined and what's it look like as far as competitive balance and then how does the new schedule impact the rival games obviously one of the great things about the big ten conference is the intense rivalries within the conference will this schedule impact the rivalries jerry i think one of the more interesting questions that everyone was wondering when does the conference season start i know you spoke with urban meyer he was a believer that it should start on time september 5th and that would give the league more leeway in putting in those bye weeks that you mentioned if the conference championship game had to be moved back it would give the opportunity for a team if unfortunately an outbreak were to happen for them to quarantine without potentially missing several key members for any game where do you anticipate or where would you like to see the league start this conference only schedule okay rick so to think that we're going to go through a schedule without some positive tests i think is bad strategy so let's assume we are going to have some positives then we have to say is it better to manage the positive tests if we start early or if we start late which is obviously your question i think we start early because we have more flexibility at the end of the schedule if we start early and we get too many positives or we have to put things in pause we we have some time on the back end if we wait to start does it what's going on in the country right right now it if we wait it doesn't mean that things are going to get better i think things are going to pretty much stay the same or get worse so to me i think you start earlier rather than later jerry i'm interested from a coach's perspective getting a game added to your schedule at this point unless it is as you mentioned there is the possibility of well maybe you're playing another conference or divisional opponent again and so you're already game planning for that divisional opponent but let's say it's a model where you have another crossover game added to your schedule how big a challenge is it because maybe people don't understand this maybe you can illuminate for us what this process is like but i certainly am well aware of the fact that you are planning game planning for these games scouting these opponents throughout the summer well i think standard procedures for most coaches whoever are you you get ready for about the first four games during the summer and the reason you can get ready for the first four games especially the first two is that you're not going to have any more information in in september than you have in july right because if it's the first game you have all of last year's video and then the second game it's a it's not quite the same third game in it it dilutes a little bit so so the way to look at that is we're still going to get ready for the early games that we know we're going to have right we're going to they're going to add another game they're not going to add more than that so there's going to be one game perhaps in pre-season that we're gonna have to get ready not pre-season but early season we're gonna have to get ready for that new game just like we would be getting ready for the fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth tenth game and so you just change your mindset because some games you know you obviously you only have a couple days to prepare anyway you have tuesday and wednesday two hard practices to get ready for a game remember this river nowadays there's so many analysts in the back room that a lot of the coaches are having a lot of that pre-game uh information given to them a lot earlier in the week than they ever have before the explosion of these analysts in the back room jerry one piece of information that a lot of these coaches hope they don't get is the kind of information that pj fleck got earlier this week when one of his star players rashad bateman a returning receiver who many believed would factor in the running for the balinikov as the nation's top whiteout decided that he would opt out of the 2020 football season and prepare for the 2021 nfl draft how do coaches get ready for that for that potential unknown we're hearing reports that penn state linebacker micah parsons could potentially do the same well i think the lesson learned here rick is most coaches better handle it just the way pj did he tweeted he he he wished bateman luck he explained that uh what we do is get ready we help our student athletes get ready for the future and so on and so forth things are changing obviously student athletes rights are are are changing in front of our eyes the whole game the whole athletic system in college is changing and and and this is this is one of the adjustments that all coaches are gonna have to be made it's interesting right i think most coaches most coaches understand players like parsons and bateman thinking about and in fact leaving it's the fans that don't understand how an athlete could do that and i would remind the fans that this is millions and millions of dollars if these two young people waited another year that's one year of their earnings that they would never get i used jayvin clowney as an example all the time he was ready to go out after his freshman year he he's probably lost 10 or 20 million dollars because the rules are set up that he cannot leave because the great majority of of college football players aren't ready for the nfl but the ones that are ready this is millions of dollars what's the narrative we're hearing right now rick we're hearing the student athletes say all millions and millions of dollars what about our health what about us what can we do so lesson learned from me i thought pj hit it right right on the head and if parsons leave i'd be shocked if james franklin didn't have the same attitude and if most coaches didn't have the same attitude jerry dinardo great stuff we will look forward to speaking with you again after the schedule is released which is coming up just over five minutes from now so sit tight thanks coach thank you uh interesting stuff there from jerry and look this is going to be one of the big narratives and and you brought it up there are reports about micah parsons rashad bateman has already made it clear that he's not coming back and then we've seen some players just opt out of the season as well ray von bonner from illinois is one who stands out so that is going to be a story as we go along here well jerry said it's unrealistic for us to think that there are not going to be positive cases of course there are going to be positive cases i think it's unrealistic for us to think that there are not going to be more players who decide to take this route and not just potentially before the season starts if the season kicks off on time i would expect some players to potentially also consider making this decision over the course of the year based on how they feel about where the country is headed in the midst of the pandemic no doubt i mean this is a most unusual season and we've already seen signs of that in previous years we've seen players decide three games into the season you know what i'm going to red shirt because i want a red shirt so that was in a quote unquote normal season this of course is is anything but a normal season and we're going to get that schedule coming up four and a half minutes or so from now here on btn in the meantime we bring in btn analyst howard griffith and howard i'm interested in hearing from you as a parent i think people are probably aware in big ten country that your son houston plays for notre dame give us a sense of what you're thinking as a parent as you hear about some of these players opting out of the season well i'm very concerned i think one of the things you have to realize is that we don't know exactly what the pandemic can do as far as the covet 19 long-term health concerns so we're concerned as a family but we do trust what notre dame is doing to this point and and we're going to continue to roll with it but i think this is something that's going to continue to be evaluated each and every day howard listen everything is different for players coaches administrators the conference everyone that has anything to do with college football and college athletics as a whole if you're a player on a football team right now or if you're a coach or an assistant coach how do you handle all the differences and more importantly all the unknowns heading into the season even when the schedule is released one of the things that happens from a football standpoint coaches are like this players are like this you know they're very regimented so i think from a football staff they want to continue to have their meetings although they're going to be different more zoom meetings are going to be happening obviously but you want to keep them as regimented as as possible and also give them as much information as you can give them i mean that's really the reality i think it's no sense in trying to sugarcoat things they obviously will know and find out what's going on outside of their little world but you have to keep them informed but you also have to keep them engaged and try to keep that focus on the upcoming season i think that's one of the things that will help when you start when we release the schedule and some places have already uh done that now the players and coaches can start to also try to focus on what could be a season for them and not allow some of the outside distractions to interfere but they're going to interfere it's really going to be who can stay focused the most and really stay dialed in and that's something that like i mentioned the coaches and also the players want to do they want to be on a regimented schedule well howard great stuff there we are looking forward to going through this schedule with you it's coming up in just a couple of minutes here on btn again we are going to release the big ten schedule that is coming up next stay tuned at the university of maryland [Music] [Music] one of the many days we've been waiting for is finally upon us the big ten answering the big question how's this all gonna work the schedules for all 14 big 10 teams about to be released here on btn we'll show you who everyone is playing and when we'll get input from a host of guests including the commissioner of the big ten kevin warren coaches abs journalists of course our btn analysts as well all of that ahead on our schedule release show here on btn live welcome back inside our btn studios dave revson and rick piezo and rick we've seen a lot of discussion about scheduling going on here over the last couple of weeks and some conferences coming forward with their plan the big ten is set to do that today again we're going to unveil it you'll have a first look at it right here on btn an exciting day and one that will answer a lot of questions a few weeks ago we learned that the big ten and the pac-12 as well would host conference only schedules in 2020 but there are a lot of things we didn't know would there be a 10th game added to the schedule who would that 10th game be against would it be another divisional opponent for the second time in the same season would it be more likely an additional crossover game when would the season start how many bye weeks would there be what kind of contingency plans would any schedule need to have in case of outbreaks the kind of outbreaks that we've seen during training camps across the big ten we are now as you mentioned dave just moments away from answering almost all of those questions with the official release of the 2020 big ten football schedule and to me one of the big things is those contingency plans the big ten talked a lot about when it made the decision to play only conference games get rid of those non-conference games the idea was flexibility in the scheduling that it would give them the opportunity to control all of the variables here outside obviously of the progress of the corona virus but in other words that they wouldn't have to worry about well if we've got an outbreak now we've got to try to shuffle a non-conference game you get that out of the way and you get yourself in a position where you are as flexible as you can possibly be and so i'm interested to see how does that flexibility work there are a lot of different theories regarding that right now everything is unknown and so we don't know which option would work the best the pac-12 announced that they're not starting until mid-september the big ten originally was supposed to start in early september we'll find out in moments if that date holds forth the big 12 recently announced that they are a mid to late september start so the thought processes here are do you start a little bit later to give yourselves a few more weeks to start training camp in case there are outbreaks in your areas or do you start on time build in extra buy weeks with flexibility potentially back up your conference championship game and work the schedule in a way dave and this is where the schedule makers earn their money work the schedule in a way that if early season games have to be rescheduled that it doesn't mess with the rest of the schedule that both teams that we're supposed to start in those respective weeks have bye weeks and following weeks how does all that get worked out we're going to find out very soon right again i think that's the big notion of the flexibility and it seems to me the thing that we'll begin to understand a little bit more clearly once we see the schedule is just how does that flexibility come into play again as soon as we get the schedule from the conference we are going to release it for you here on btn dave repson and rick piso with you again we know a few things here about the big ten schedule we know it will be conference games only beyond that just a lot of question marks and a lot of variables to be filled in we're going to find out some of those answers here coming up as soon as we're able to release the schedule and then we'll be able to ask some questions we'll be able to ask questions of the commissioner kevin warren who is set to join us at the top of the hour and talk about a challenging situation to be thrown into rick i mean kevin warren takes over and within the span of a couple months is put in the position where he had to cancel the big ten basketball tournament of course so many other conferences followed suit on the exact same day but still that's a difficult position to be put in and now trying to figure out a way to put this schedule together there have been between the athletic directors 103.00 zoom calls or conference calls somebody's actually keeping track since yes since they had that day where they had to cancel the big ten tournament here's what they came up with for football we now can release the schedule here it is for you to comprehend 10 games for each team over 12 weeks starting labor day weekend ending the weekend before thanksgiving every team plays the first three weeks and the final week the bye weeks are spread among the other eight weeks of note the michigan ohio state game is in week eight october the 24th in columbus it'll be the first time since 1942 they've not played their final conference game against one another indiana purdue's the only traditional rivalry that ends the season each team has six division games and four crossovers so we got a question answered there one crossover was added to each team's schedule in addition to the three already scheduled the added games penn state and illinois indiana minnesota maryland at iowa michigan state at nebraska michigan at northwestern ohio state at purdue rutgers at wisconsin now we've talked about the flexibility and maximizing control to understand what that means in practice this is how it's set up they could start as much as four weeks late and still have the championship game which is now scheduled for december the 5th delayed only two weeks how would that work well each of the first two weeks could be moved until after the season so week one could be moved to november 28th week two could be moved to december fifth here's where it's really well thought out though each team shares a bye week in weeks five through seven with its week three and four opponents take illinois for instance you see them on the left there they face indiana and purdue in weeks three and four they all have buys in week five so if those games can't be played in weeks three or four one of them could be made up there in week five if they both can't be played one gets made up in week five and then the other would get made up on december the 12th meaning that in that scenario of if they had to start a month late the championship game would be december the 19th so again that's where the flexibility is built into this schedule really quite ingenious and again you get a sense of what they've been working on here let's look at some of the key games how about this little brown jug eat a week two first meeting in three years michigan enters year six under jim harbaugh looking to end the 15-year conference title drought they'll face a gophers team that is flying high under pj fleck 11 wins last year most since 1904 this figures to be their toughest crossover they do not play ohio state or penn state part of a critical back-to-back stretch for michigan which hosts penn state the following week rematch of a fabulous game at state college last year won by the nittany lions penn state's been to three new year six games in the last four years hoping this is the year they break through and make the cfp a lot of talent coming back to penn state all right dave how about some games that we traditionally see during the final week of the season this year will not be played that week minnesota wisconsin the acts september 26th that is a week four game of course wisconsin has to replace jonathan taylor we've recently learned that minnesota has to replace not just tyler johnson but rashad bateman more on that coming up in a bit michigan ohio state will also not be played on the saturday after thanksgiving instead october the 24th this year as michigan looks to snap that losing streak against ohio state justin fields is back recently named by the way one of seven captains for ohio state so that game now scheduled for october the 24th well the buckeyes other huge divisional game comes november the 7th where they head to state college to take on penn state bucks have captured the last three in the series by a total of 13 points after the lions memorable win in 16. penn state's been tremendous of late at home it'll be interesting to see if that holds with limited crowds but unbeaten three of the last four years there two of the favorites in the west clash the following week in iowa city as the hawkeyes host wisconsin the badgers 52 wins last five years sixth most in power five can they break through and make the cfp would likely need to beat the hawks who they have topped seven times in the last eight meetings iowa fresh off a nine win regular season best in four years they went 10-3 overall interesting for wisconsin no penn state no ohio state this year for the badgers and the crossovers so that's kind of the micro here's the macro 10 conference only games as dave mentioned while reading the master schedule two buys for every team but it's not the amount of buys it's the way those buys are built in the schedule allowing the conference flexibility should games have to be rescheduled all teams play six divisional and four crossover games that answered one of the questions that our good friend jerry dinardo had asked over the course of the last couple of weeks he had asked it not just to you and i dave but to urban meyer as well when they got together uh jerry i remember you asking urban if he would be interested in seeing ohio state michigan twice as a fan he said yes as a coach no chance now we know it's an additional crossover game let's start with your overall view of that decision and the others that make up the 2020 schedule well i think the rivalry games jump out at you right other than uh indiana and purdue the rivalry games have been moved and i think that's historic you know the big ten conference has always like a lot of conferences but they've really always treasured their their rival games and to move a game like ohio state and michigan earlier in the season in case the season doesn't finish i wouldn't think there'd be any other reason to do it other than we don't really know how long the season is going to go and the same thing with wisconsin and minnesota and everybody but indiana and purdue has been moved uh you know reverend mentioned that you know this thing has been obviously well thought out as far as the health of the players and where the buys are and how they can anticipate some problems and deal with those problems hopefully as they arise jerry you know you talked about this notion of moving the rivalry games and my understanding is it really was to protect those games to give them the best chance possible of playing them you moved them to earlier in the year if for some reason they need to be delayed then you have another shot at it toward the end of the season and it really speaks to this notion of collaboration i mentioned to rick the staggering number right before we went to the schedule more than 100 zoom and conference calls between all of the athletic directors since the big ten basketball tournament had to be canceled back in march and it really speaks to the collaboration and the notion of setting priorities here as a coach what would you be most interested in in terms of prioritizing the schedule and what did you see addressed here today well i think the flexibility at the end i mean let's give commissioner warren all kinds of credit for being the first conference that said only conference games i don't know that all this could have been developed as soon because we really don't know when they made all these decisions my guess is they didn't make them this morning right before they came on air right so they've had time to figure this out only because they gave themselves the flexibility of the partners only being within the conference the collaboration river as you said so if i'm a coach i'm looking at that this and i'm of course the first thing the coach is gonna do is what's my extra game i wish it was somebody else once you get past that that competitive part of the conversation i think as a coach you look at the end of the season and you see flexibility at the end of the season in case things change and i think that as a coach says you know i'm glad we had the thousand of these zoom calls that this this thing has worked out as as well as it can and i really appreciate all the college presidents the commission and the athletic directors and us as head coaches getting together coming up with a schedule that gives us flexibility at the end of the year to me i think that says a lot about the process and i think everybody in the big tech conference should be really proud of what they have presented today and let's just hope for the best as we go through it and jerry kevin warren even before this pandemic set in when he took over as commissioner said that one of his key focuses would be the health safety and welfare of all student athletes this is a challenge unlike any other in exactly that category protecting athletes during the pandemic and what the league is going to be able to do for these players we've seen other players already decide to opt out rashad bateman just this week we are hearing reports about micah parsons potentially doing the same of course all sports are required to have a minimum test once a week high contact sports football included twice a week testing for not just athletes but coaches and staff required within three days of competition in the conference set to coordinate with a third party testing laboratory to make sure that all of this is above board jerry it certainly seems from the surface not obviously being involved in all those internal meetings that the commissioner and the league has done everything that it could potentially do to protect its student athletes as it releases the 2020 schedule rick and i think that's a great jumping off point for a team meeting when you get in front of your team and you explain exactly what you just went through right and like any other season now you talk to your team about taking care of themselves when they're outside the facility i think it's safe to say inside the facilities we're wearing masks we're very conscious of the virus and how we can prevent it but no different than addressing a typical thursday night during the season before the virus struck what you do thursday night socially is going to impact you on saturday it's a message every coach explains to their team why because the most of the work is done you don't have class on friday all your buddies that are not playing go out thursday night if you want to go out thursday night and do something silly to your body it's going to impact you on saturday so the message is the same if you want to leave here and not wear a mask when you're when you're with other people if you guys want to leave here not wear masks and play video games in an apartment just understand you're going to have consequences of that so the adults in the room have done everything they can do and now the young adults you have to do everything that you can to prevent the spread of the virus and i would think it would be a team goal to have no positive tests and maybe just like you have a team goal not to lose a game whether it's realistic or whether it's not it's a goal and your actions should point you towards that goal whether you reach it or not a lot of life lessons and that's one thing that's not different this year you learn a lot from being a student athlete and and this is going to be one of the lessons you're gonna you're gonna be presented with do i take care of myself to benefit my teammates and myself and my team you do talk about life lessons coach i know that's something you do all the time when you're coaching a team when you're parenting right these are messages you send and i think young people are learning this year just how little control at times you can have of the world around you and how much uncertainty there is how do you deal with that as a coach i understand what you were talking about trying to control some of the variables and and this notion of hey do everything that you can to make sure this doesn't spread within the team but how about just this idea of hey we got a schedule today and there's the possibility of these games being moved and yes ideally we're going to start labor day weekend but it could be as late as october what's the messaging there as a coach in terms of all of the variables that are still out there for players you know i think we've all heard coaches preach this 1-0 mentality we've heard some coaches take the attitude that it's a nameless opponent that we don't talk about season goals we just talk about the next game i've never really bought into that but i would suggest to you this is a time to buy into that let let's let's literally talk about being one and oh we don't even know when the game's gonna start i i do think this the coaches like every other problem that a coach is faced with the coaches that deal with the pandemic the best as far as what the players are doing off the field how hard they're working the players right now not necessarily knowing when the first game is going to be we know when the first game is scheduled so i think the decisions about what you're doing with your team to prevent fatigue in your team going into the first game if in fact the first games date changes so the successful coaches that have dealt with other problems in the past will probably be the ones that deal with this problem the best but there's a ton of coaching decisions you don't want to wear your team out you know it it's it's something that uh you know some coaches do some coaches don't you just have to manage the physical part of your team especially knowing you know what happens if that first date changes btn football analyst jerry dinardo jerry as always we appreciate the time and the insight thanks rick thanks robert take a quick break here on our btn live schedule release show when we come back more on ohio state schedule we already let you know when the buckeyes would face michigan and penn state show you the remaining eight games but first coming up after the break the man behind this schedule and the commissioner of the big ten kevin warren joins us on this special edition of btn live the big ten football schedule release show right after the break here is a look at how week one shakes out according to the newly released big ten football schedule circa 2020. ohio state and illinois getting us started on thursday night september the third in champaign a friday night game on the week one schedule as well as wisconsin hosts indiana and then five more conference matchups on saturday september 5th minnesota at michigan state rutgers at home against nebraska northwestern travels to state college michigan plays host to purdue and interestingly enough maryland faces iowa this is the additional game so no extra time for kirk ferris or mike loxley to get ready for opponents that were on the original schedule before all these changes needed to be made [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] justin fields to chris olaver [Music] what a year 2019 was for ryan day in his first go-round as the head man of the buckeyes big ten champs all the way to the college football playoff here is what 2020 sets up like for ohio state thursday night opener week one against illinois then a week two match up at home against rutgers the additional game for ohio state the tenth game this year is against the boilermakers that will be on the road on september 19th followed by a home game against indiana a bye week on october the 3rd followed by nebraska at michigan state and yes the michigan game this year on october 24th final month of the season for ohio state sets up with a road trip to maryland and penn state a bye week on the 14th and a home game against iowa [Music] for the man who oversaw this revamped big ten schedule kevin warren the commissioner of the conference joining us right now and kevin first of all thanks for taking the time out i know this is a busy day in a long line of busy days for you so so thanks a lot let's talk first about the starting date you had some leagues that said we're gonna push it back we're gonna go to late september before we start the big ten chose to start on time or at least to schedule a start on time what went into that decision they went into uh the decision again thank you and good morning and i hope your family is well but what went into the decision was to uh afford us the best possible opportunity to be as flexible as we possibly can and that was one of the reasons why when we decided to go to a 10 game only uh schedule uh a big ten only conference schedule is that we're hopeful that uh this builds an opportunity for us to remain as flexible as we possibly can so as you're aware if something were to happen where we didn't start on september 5th we have the flexibility to start even on september 12th or the 19th and we have because we have those open dates throughout the schedule and on the back end we would be able to collapse some of those early dates to a later date so the big thing for us right now always is number one is the health and safety of our student athletes and everyone in our big ten community uh but but also is to have as much flexibility as we possibly can you mentioned the health and safety commissioner and you've talked a great deal about this you were talking about it long before we were in a pandemic and of course now it's become front and center given everything that's going on health-wise in this country in addition to releasing the schedule today the big ten also released its guidelines for health and wellness how testing is going to work give us some insight into what the announcement was today and pragmatically how you see this being applied on the campuses yeah dave i mean as you know testing is a critical component to the overall health and wellness and safety of our student athletes of our students on campus and everyone in society and uh you know testing is is a critical component uh it doesn't solve all the issues but our goal is to make sure that if we are so blessed to be able to compete this fall in the big ten that our student athletes will not only be healthy and safe during during the week but also as we enter into competition so one of the the decisions that we made for low contact sports is that they will be tested and then these are minimum standards at a minimum of one time per week but our high contact sports such as football the minimum will be twice a week and those will be pcr uh tests the other important component is that all of these tests once we get into competition will be managed by a third-party laboratory we thought it was really important from a consistency and credibility standpoint uh that uh that we managed that from a third-party standpoint so testing is critical and as i said and because we released a football schedule from a football standpoint these are minimum standards and when we say minimum standards from our standpoint so each one of our student athletes will be tested twice a week and our whole goal and we're working in additional ways with some rapid tests that we would also be able to incorporate additional rapid testing on top of the the two tests uh pcr tests our student football student athletes and other high contact sports student athletes would receive so we're taking the testing component of this entire process very seriously we will again continually keep our standards very high and make sure we are methodical in our testing policies and procedures let's roll up our sleeves a little bit and dive into some of the specifics of the schedule and one of the big questions and rick and i were talking about this with coach dinardo earlier was how would you add a game would it be another game within the division where you would double up on some of the better rivalries perhaps in the big ten or would it be going into another game against the other division of course that's what you ended up doing these cross-divisional games got added so what went into the decision to add those cross-divisional games and then how did you decide which games would be added to each team's schedule in other words who they'd play yeah what we wanted to do is just to make sure that uh you know we we created a schedule that was fair uh that was equitable that was methodical and as you alluded to provided us with the opportunity to have so much flexibility so if something happened where team was not able to to play during a week that we could either move those games later to the season um and we just i think flexibility is so critically important as you can see on the screen with the schedule up there now i mean dave as we all know i mean we are we are very hopeful uh to have uh a big 10 football season to have fall sports in our big ten conference but again you know what we're doing we're approaching this entire process on a day-to-day basis we're gathering medical information daily we're communicating with all of our constituents in the big ten we're communicating uh with our student athletes and having dialogue with them uh this will this will not be a straight line this year and again you know we've released the schedule but we've done it in a con context of we have to plan ahead but we understand that um that we are in a pandemic we're doing the best that we possibly can to create an environment where our student athletes can get a world-class education of at one of our institutions but also if we're so fortunate that compete uh in intercollegiate athletics here this fall but no matter what we do no matter what happens with the schedule if we are so fortunate to play uh fall sports is that we need to make sure that the health and safety and the wellness and not only the physical health and safety and wellness but also the mental uh health and safety and wellness of our student athletes remain at the top of our list and as i sit here today i'm confident that we've done everything we possibly uh can up to this moment to feel comfortable to move to tomorrow and as i said this is a day-to-day situation we're gathering information it's it is uh epitomizes fluidity and uh and so we feel good today but again we will this is something that we're working on throughout the day and night every single day of the week well we're talking about the schedule today but of course the first thing you have to do before you get to playing those games is actually get teams into pre-season camps they'll be going through some of the voluntary workouts here you mentioned in your letter to the athletic directors that came out last week that you would move into a pre-season camp phase when the protocols were in place and when you felt comfortable moving to that step where are you in that process when can teams open camp yeah so teams will be allowed to open camp this friday uh august 7th and what we're doing is our testing uh protocols and procedures uh will be finalized and and activated as we get into full competition so quite naturally the week before whatever the first uh week we compete and as of now it's it's our games are scheduled uh during that that uh um you know september 5th that we have a thursday and a friday night game on the schedule so we would have to have those testing protocols and procedures in a centralized location with coordination of the big 10 office in place what we're doing is during these next couple weeks is that our 14 schools have been testing up until now all of them have have uh are world-class institutions 13 of the 14 of them have actual hospitals and uh to to be able to continually conduct the testing and so our 14 schools will be handling the testing during this preseason practice transitional period but as we get into full-scale competition then um then the big ten office will work in conduct conjunction with our 14 schools to make sure that the testing protocols and procedures are not only followed but they're handled in a very transparent manner but our our teams are allowed to start practice this friday and um and so we'll look forward to uh to walking down this process together and making sure that we're paying attention to every every my new detail kevin we've already seen some teams that have had to shut down their workouts most recently this week northwestern we've seen rutgers michigan state ohio state uh also in that scenario to what degree is the conference advising schools when they have positive tests as to whether or not they need to shut down i mean you know the conference office we're involved in all of this but one of the things that's really important is our 14 big 10 institutions basically lay over 11 different states and we will always follow the policies and the procedures and the the laws in our 11 different states and so we have different uh states um in our footprint and so because of that our 14 institutions are are working in conjunction uh with their local policies and procedures so we're here to support them we're here to support any decisions that they make and uh you know we have great collaboration i mean we we have a a daily call with our athletic directors and we have um calls with our coaches on a regular basis quite naturally as you're aware i'm in close communication with all of our chancellors and presidents and and now we've been able to even hope to open up the lines of communication with our faculty athletic representatives and our senior women administrators i mean this is really a very unique place and time it's an honor to serve the big ten it's an honor to work hand in hand with every person in the big ten and the thing that i've really enjoyed uh the most during this process is having the opportunity to have transparent opening on his dialogue with our student athletes we have incredibly bright student athletes already knew that based upon our dialogue on our anti-hate anti-racism coalition but to have dialogue with our student athletes where we can have transparent communication is uh has been an area that i have really enjoyed i've embraced and what it's done is set the tone not only for us to communicate with our student athletes during during this uh dealing with cover 19 but also as we go forward and dave on many occasions as you know i have a son who's a football student athlete in the sec at mississippi state and so i've asked myself as a father would i be comfortable for him to participate in the big ten based upon the testing policies protocols and procedures we have in place and as of today the answer is yes so i feel comfortable as we sit here today but it's a fluid situation there's no guarantee that we will have fall sports or football season but we're doing everything we possibly can that if we're so blessed to be able to have false sports that things are organized and done in a very methodical and professional manner i want to finish with you on that how what is your level of certainty that these games will be played kevin i mean dave all we can do is uh as i said is to be organized be methodical be very thoughtful make sure that we're we're treating our student athletes with the utmost respect and decorum creating an environment for our student athletes and our coaches and everyone involved in the big ten that is safe that is healthy and that is good enough uh for for them because they are part of the big 10 family and so it would be purely speculation for me to sit here today and say you know this is what percent i think will have a season i i know from my standpoint i'm taking this entire process this entire journey on a day-to-day basis i'm staying focused i'm staying prayerful to do the right thing and i look forward to to hopefully one day being able to turn around and say that we did everything we could in the big ten to keep our student athletes healthy and safe both physically and mentally during this journey and uh and that we learned a lot uh during this process and that we created an environment that they know that is safe for them to compete in intercollegiate athletics well commissioner i know i say this to you every time we talk it seems whether it's publicly or privately i know this is a really challenging and tumultuous time for you we really thank you for your time and everything that you've done to get the big ten in a position hopefully to play this season you know dave thank you for everything uh you've done and thanks to big ten network and it's been an interesting year to say the least but uh there's no other place i'd rather be than here uh working on these issues with some wonderful people and doing the best we can to make sure our student athletes are protected and healthy and safe so have a wonderful day i know we'll be back in touch soon all right you do the same thanks commissioner take care what an amazing job commissioner warren is doing in nearly impossible times obviously some deep ties in the twin cities for the commissioner and what a year it was for minnesota the loss to wisconsin one of only two defeats for pj flex team through all of 2019 you could argue it was the greatest success story in the country nine straight wins to begin the year including over number four penn state in that historic game at tcf bank stadium eventually minnesota would go to the outback bowl and beat auburn to finish off an 11-win season now they'll try to back it up in 2020. and how about this start back-to-back crossover games against schools from the mitten state first in east lansing and then at home against michigan doesn't get any easier for the gophers when they go in division september 19th against iowa backed up against a road trip to face those badgers on september the 26th october games include a road trip to nebraska home games against indiana and purdue on a halloween date in champaign a bye week on november 7th followed by games against northwestern and maryland to wrap up the regular season now minnesota will try to find that same success of 2019 without one of its main weapons from last season wide receiver rashad bateman has opted out of the 2020 season and will declare for the 2021 nfl draft a third team all-american bateman had 60 catches for more than 1200 yards and 11 touchdowns last season was expected to factor in the race for the balinikov award which is given to the nation's top wide receiver as for the gopher's biggest rival we will look at wisconsin's 2020 schedule as we continue on this scheduled release edition of btn live no ohio state no penn state the good news for paul chris and the badgers how about one of the east favorites the penn state nittany lions we will break down their schedule as well as we continue our schedulely show here on btn law one of the story lines we will continue to follow throughout the 2020 season players opting out and instead declaring for the 2021 nfl draft rashad bateman of minnesota made it official now michael parsons has not made it official it has not been confirmed by the school but multiple reports are suggesting that the reigning big ten linebacker of the year the first sophomore to ever win that award is considering doing the same and opting out of the 2020 season to get ready for the 2021 nfl draft with or without parsons penn state will charge on in 2020 looking to continue this amazing run under james franklin 42 wins over the past four years alone of course that also included a big ten championship and playing in one of the greatest rose bowls in history one of the key games on the schedule for penn state as it is every year against ohio state this year that game scheduled for saturday november the 7th penn state will open up against a cross division opponent in northwestern on september 5th followed by a road trip to indiana another roadie at michigan on september 19th the spartans visit state college on september 26th october games include a roadie to rutgers home games against maryland and iowa and a visit to lincoln and in november penn state will face ohio state on november 7th in illinois on november the 21st big ten football analyst and former ohio state star joshua perry now kind enough to join us joshua you've had a moment to look over the release of the 2020 big ten football schedule what jumps out to you i think it's a the flexibility the overall flexibility of the schedule and that was something i was hoping the big ten would build in i like the early start date just because it gives you some options down the line in case anything happens and i think it would be foolish to think that we would go through a season without some issues uh so the early start date along with some of those bye weeks built in the ability to flex the big ten championship game at the end of the year i think is fantastic and then uh you're kind of looking through and there's so many things some of the traditional rivalries of the big ten aren't going to be played as the last game of the season but i think those are the things that we have to do if we're going to play a season to get it the way that we want it joshua you were considered a leader especially late in your career on those ohio state teams and i think it's fair to say that this year leadership on teams from players especially will be vitally important as some of the younger players try to adhere to not just the team rules but these new rules these new pandemic rules and all the testing could you talk about what you would do from a player's perspective from being a leader on a team to ensure that your team is meeting all the off the field goals that would allow it to actually complete a 2020 season you know i think that becomes very interesting because as a leader of the team i feel like student athletes are also leaders on campus so if if folks on campus see student athletes wearing a mask and adhering to social distancing etc i think that becomes a popular thing on campus now within the team it comes down to basically the same principles that you do everything with if you're somebody who is about the team and you're not selfish you're going to follow the rules if you're a selfish player you're already a cancer to the team so i think that the leadership from that regard for these teams is going to make that pretty clear i think the toughest thing in terms of leadership and preparation for everybody now is we're we're under a month and this thing is getting started and so the ability to to change your mindset to put all the things that you cannot control aside and start preparing for a season that's going to be high contact something that we've anticipated everybody's excited about but you know to put out a good product and to perform to the best of your ability i think that's where the leadership really kicks in i have full confidence that all the student athletes on campus are doing everything they need to do to have a safe environment because they absolutely do want to play the next biggest step is how can you do all the safety protocols but also make sure that you're getting prepared in a way that you'll be able to play well during the season as a former ohio state player i would be remiss not to ask you what it means to play michigan but not play michigan on the saturday after thanksgiving listen it is still as urban meyer would say that team up north but it is not the traditional date your thoughts on the change in that date which according to the conference was more likely to protect that rivalry to ensure that game was played sure and i'm a traditionalist when it comes to rivalries in these games so it's a little bit funky to not see it being played at the end of the year however i understand the circumstances that we're up against and i truly believe that if you play the game toward the middle of the season to give yourself that flexibility in case anything happens that's more important i want to see these rivalry games being played i think the big ten conference has some of the best tradition in america in terms of rivalries and big games and so protecting the ability to play those letting the student athletes go out there those are the most fun games to play in there's no doubt about that so any way that we can make those happen whether it's at the beginning of the year in the middle of the season to have that sort of flexibility i think is a plus joshua some of the players that are opting out or considering to opt out of the 2020 season and get ready for the 2021 nfl draft are those who are expected to be higher round picks guys who know they are going to get paid a lot of money and perhaps nowhere in the big ten will more of those type of players be found than in columbus that goes to the recruiting and the skill level of those players now ohio state just named seven different captains including several guys who are going to have nfl futures if you're ryan day how do you handle the situation of understanding that different players are going to have different levels of concern and different levels of interest in not just playing this year but also ensuring that they are ready to play at the next level so i think as a head coach is a tough challenge and you want to support your guys and make sure that they're taking every opportunity to the best of their ability for their future and right now obviously college football is very important it's a platform and a springboard for some of these highly ranked players to make it to the nfl but truly the goal is the nfl and if you're a head coach you have to understand that if a player feels like for the best of their protection they need to take the time off this year so they can prepare that's what you have to do i think now with the schedule out there's this feeling that we can really get through a schedule with all the flexibility built in there to where we can play in a conference championship game to where we can get to a point where maybe we have a postseason with the playoff and when you're able to dangle uh conference championships and playoffs out there i think some of the better players want to compete for those things if they're out there just playing the season just to play it i think that's where you get some guys opting out but if you can present a scenario where you're gonna have conference championships and all-american awards at the end of the year i think the competitive nature takes over for a lot of these players and they'll go out there and compete for a championship all right josh well let's finish with this the conference in fact no one can guarantee the players their complete and total safety from the coronavirus pandemic that's just a medical impossibility but based on what the league has done today with the flexibility of the schedule with the health and wellness regulations and the testing requirements if you're a player today would you feel as if the league is doing all that it can to protect you as much as possible heading into the 2020 schedule no i i believe it i believe commissioner warren does a great job with his dialogue with student athletes ads head coaches etc so i know from that standpoint everybody is on the same page i am truly a believer that student athletes in a lot of cases are better off on campus with some of the medical care that they receive and some of the protocols that they're able to adhere to rather than being at home and the reality of the situation is specifically when you're talking about football this is a sport that is dangerous it's a hazardous sport and all these players understand that when they get into it i retired from the game of football because of the hazards of playing the game and so there's no shame in anybody making an individual decision that they don't want to play but i think the way things are going right now and the attention that it's being given the resources that are being applied to the coronavirus pandemic i think that big ten players are in a situation where their health and their safety and their wellness is first and foremost terrific insight from bt analyst btn analyst and former ohio state buckeye joshua perry joshua we appreciate the time as always thank you thanks for having me [Music] [Applause] milk just went with pure power [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 25. the defending west division champ wisconsin looking to get to the big ten title game for the seventh time in 10 years they will open on friday september the 4th against indiana that is their originally scheduled opener so that one held its position then a couple road games against divisional opponents northwestern and nebraska before heading home for what is usually the season finale against minnesota will be the first time they don't face the gophers in the regular season finale since 2013. they have iowa in week 11. their added game is that finale at home against rutgers btn and fox analyst urban meyer joining us now to break down the schedule a little bit further in coach meyer i want to start with this the michigan ohio state game is in october rather than on the final saturday of the regular season what's your reaction as someone who spent a lot of time in the middle of that rivalry i think the critical thing is right now is uh player safety and the fact that tried to play this game trying to play football this fall so it's heartbreaking to be honest with you but uh adaptability uh sacrifice are all going to be critical on everyone's part so uh if this gives people a chance and it is i looked at the schedule i think the adaptability the flat uh the fact there's gonna be a couple bye weeks in there um and it's not over i think the flexibility of the schedule you're gonna see things happen the next few weeks so i i'm fine with it and it's part of sacrifice and being adaptable you mentioned uncertainty you said it's not over these are challenges i would have to imagine as a head coach above and beyond a normal season given the unusual nature of what's going on here given that you don't know what's going to happen day to day let alone week to week or what things are going to look like on october the 24th what's the biggest challenge as a head coach when you enter a season with so much uncertainty well i i'm very proud of ryan day i'm very proud of some of these other coaches that i'm colleagues with i talk to them they're friends of mine it's not your job to make statements it's not your job to give opinions where really your opinion doesn't matter you know a football coach is exactly that a coach makes your teams tackle well make sure your team can throw and catch involved security and and you're recruiting at a high level and that's where you're going to see those programs thrive because when the athletic director gets the go-ahead and it gives you the thumbs up your team better be ready to play and if you're focused on your team you will be and recruiting so you know i i've been pulled in a million directions when i was a coach i noticed uh i was at my very best and i see coaches at the very best when they're focused on what their job is and that's when they get the thumbs up your team better be ready to go and i know certain coaches will be doing that and those are going to be the ones that thrive part of having that team ready to go i'd have to believe is tremendous communication communication with the players communication with their families as well as a head coach in a situation like this what would the messaging have to be in terms of getting everyone on the same page well the messaging and that i've always used and i would recommend would be i love you we care deeply about you and your families are complete transparency on everything that's going on never once while you read i'm opting out i'm opting out i uh i don't trust you know when i start seeing players that don't trust the system there's a serious serious problem in your organization if the players trust you as a head coach and trust your strength coach trust the athletic director and there's deep trust you're gonna be fine because they trust you when i start hearing things about um there's distrust you you better tape your ankles because it's there's something serious wrong in your organization and those that trust their coaches and trust their organization they'll be fine because they know deep down they're gonna do the best thing for them and of course i'm talking about the players right players are given the option this year of opting out and maintaining their scholarship and maintaining their standing within the program we've also seen in recent days players now starting to say you know what i'm not going to play this year i'm just going to prepare for the nfl draft for shot bateman the most obvious example the reports out there about micah parsons as well you certainly come from a world at ohio state or in previous stops let's say in florida for instance as well where you're dealing with real high-level players guys who have a great shot at being drafted high in the nfl how would you handle a situation like this with a player who's saying hey i'm not really sure there's a huge upside for me in terms of the nfl and playing this year and i'm more interested in just furthering my stock for the league and not playing this season of opting out not because i don't trust you but because i feel like it's in my best interest for my professional career i certainly understand it i went through it with nick bosa arguably the best player in america i think he was the best player he wasn't only that though he was a leader he was a captain he was a guy that i put his locker right you know every day you'd walk by his locker on purpose you know everything we did was with sense of urgency and purpose and and when he opted out and he had that really bad injury he had the and is there a chance he could have come back maybe maybe not but they didn't want to risk it his father was a dear friend of mine and i get it i mean i had a hard time pulling myself up out of the chair when your best player does that but do i understand sure i understand i mean you have an opportunity with generational money then ultimately what's your job to take care of your family and so i i understand it i understand those are the days you know back when i was at bowling green or early started coaching there wasn't this kind of you know opportunity involved so i certainly understand it like i said is it heartbreaking and this is the harsh reality of where we're at i certainly understand it coach i'm going to leave you with this one final thought kind of your biggest picture takeaway of what we've seen here today i think it's good i think you know i i think the powers to be are giving this a lot of thought they're doing what's best everyone's focus is on number one health and safety number two get them on the field and play if we can and does that mean there needs to be flexibility adaptability and sacrifice on the fact that ohio state the team up north won't be playing at the end of the year i mean that takes your breath away but reality is this and people are working to get the players on the field and doing what they love to do btn and fox analyst durbin meyer coach thanks so much for your time today look forward to watching some of these games with you as the season unfolds good to see you dave lots more to come on our btn live schedule release special as we will dive into the iowa hawkeyes challenging off season for kirk ferentz and company we'll see what the regular season holds will this be the year that michigan breaks through under jim harbaugh show you the wolverines 2020 schedule and we'll hear from btn analyst howard griffith all still to come on this special schedule release edition of btn live nebraska and iowa has typically been a black friday tradition it was moved up as almost all the rivalry games were they will play september the 26th in iowa city instead hawks coming off a banner year finished 15th in both national polls dominated usc in the holiday bowl considered one of the favorites in the big ten west and iowa starts with the one game that was added to its schedule a home game against maryland they have a challenging crossover schedule remember the three previously scheduled games included trips to penn state and ohio state they finished the year now with the buckeyes they also have a home game against michigan state penn state wisconsin ohio state among their final four games so it's challenging no doubt for kirk ferentz and company how about wisconsin and ohio state to finish the year for iowa welcome in btn football analyst howard griffith howard we're all excited to have the schedule and to know when the big ten will start to know when your favorite team will play its toughest or your favorite opponent to play against what we don't know is how the season itself will unfold and most importantly player safety player welfare you're the parent of a college football athlete how do you feel today if that son of yours were playing in the big ten about the health wellness and safety regulations and requirements that the big ten has set forth to play the 2020 season i would feel really good i think when you when you look back at the testing protocol those are minimums so what's exciting about that is they're going to continue to move forward to try to attain rapid testing they're going to have their own uh lab that's going to be able to make sure that those tests are taken care of and we've had these conversations uh you know amongst my buddies about how are you going to make sure all of these tests are actually going to be above board there's a third party that's going to be taking care of that and that's no way to insinuate anyone in the big 10 conference would do anything like that to try to fudge test but the reality is this from a parent's standpoint you feel really good when you know that there's going to be a third party that's going to be handling those things one of the questions we're receiving a lot online right now howard is about fan attendance and that's obviously not a conference mandated decision that is an institutional decision right now being driven by state guidelines but it adds to the unknown factor what will it be like to play in a stadium with no fans or twenty thousand fans a smaller amount than you're used to but everything right now isn't unknown so is there a type of team a team built a certain way that is better equipped to handle a season that is completely filled with the unknown one of the things you think about i think they all it's the way they go about it because it's going to be so much so different than what they're accustomed to so coaches are going to have to be able to make adjustments so at this point i think they're all equipped to go out and make these types of adjustments that have to happen but the teams that are dialed in the teams that are focused the teams that are dedicated to trying to move forward are the teams that are going to be able to have the most success one of the things that somewhat troubles me you know a little bit is the notion that because you're wearing a mask we want our student athletes to do everything the right way but we also have to understand that there's also a chance that you could uh get covet 19 even though you're doing all the right things and i think that's important because what will happen i think in fan bases and and we in the media we'll see some people that test positive and will automatically assume they did the wrong thing in most cases you're probably right but there are going to be cases out there where they did everything right and they still unfortunately contracted colbit and i don't like the way those athletes student athletes may be portrayed in the media so we have to be careful when we talk when we talk and we understand we assume just how someone contracted kovic so that's one of the things that i've been thinking about as we've been talking about this announcement today and really throughout the past weeks and months howard as we dive into the schedule itself what jumped out to you was it keeping the original start date was it adding a tenth game against an additional crossover opponent was it moving the dates of those rivalry games that are traditionally at the end of the season which of those kind of stood out to you as the most impactful decision by the conference well i think moving moving keeping everything on schedule moving it up having the fact that you have essentially six by weeks that are out there the flexibility i think which is what you've heard heard a lot of people talk about those are all important because that gives you know the the institutions the teams an opportunity to to play a game if something happens uh so the flexibility to me is what jumps out listen we all want to have these games but we also want to make sure that these student athletes and really the general population at these institutions are getting the best health care and that they're in the safest positions as possible howard let me finish with this the coaches are dealing with brand new schedules for mike locksley and kirk ferenz for example they face off against each other that game wasn't even on the schedule until it got added and released today other coaches like pj fleck are dealing with a player an elite player like rashad bateman opting out and declaring for the 2021 nfl draft other players will do that as well if you're one of those coaches in that situation a coach like ryan day who has so much nfl talent on his team how do you continue to manage week by week not knowing exactly what players may be available not knowing what players may still be on your team it's going to be tough but you have to be flexible you have to be nimble you have to also understand what these student athletes are going through and they're all going to have their own individual stories whether it's health concerns from not having an opportunity to be around their parents who may be at high risk whether it's an opportunity to go on to the next level and play and not want to risk being involved in the unknown i think these are going to be very difficult times but you still ultimately have to be able to be nimble i think one of the things that we've learned throughout all the social unrest over the last couple of months is to be able to listen so i think the most important thing that each one of these coaches and the coaching staffs as well they have to be able to listen to the concerns of the athletes and the reality is if you're a good coach you're a great coach that's what you have to be able to do and i think the coaches that we have in this conference and the staffs that we have will understand that and we'll get through that process but rick it won't be easy it's going to be it's going to be something different each and every week understanding listening flexibility all key phrases for 2020 howard griffith great catch up as always we appreciate the time all right take care one of the huge headlines of today's schedule release ohio state and michigan will not close the season against one another and the first time their final conference game is not against each other since 1942 as you're likely well aware it's a series that has been dominated by the buckeyes of blade eight straight wins 15 of the last 16 against the maze of blue they will play it on october the 24th in columbus we look at the rest of the wolverine schedule defining stretch early at minnesota then home against penn state their annual grudge match with michigan state comes on october the 3rd a game that will be played in ann arbor they host wisconsin the week after their game in columbus so we talk about defining stretches october 24th and halloween day big games for the michigan wolverines and then their added game comes in the final week when they will visit northwestern here to add a little bit more perspective for us is pat 40 from sports illustrated of course a contributor here at btn pat there have been so many questions about the big ten schedule release we got some answers here today what are the most interesting ones to you well what really jumps out to me dave is they're going to start early you know september 3rd uh with ohio state illinois and they're going to play a full schedule on september 5th and uh you know a lot of conferences have been pushing back their games uh late september uh and so on and so you know that's what really jumps out to me is the big ten is going to get going uh very quickly first amongst the uh the power five conferences and we're gonna have some really interesting good games early and of course part of that a huge part of the explanation behind it was to increase flexibility to build in even more time if those early games have to be canceled and again we explained to people when we released the schedule more than an hour ago it certainly bears repeating weeks one and two could be moved down to the end of the season weeks three and four all those teams share mutual buys in week five through seven and so you can move those three in four games if they have to be postponed so maximum flexibility what do you think of that approach and how it compares to some of the other leagues that we've seen release their schedules and the approach that they've taken well i think it's smart obviously a ton of thought went into it and yeah where you can move games uh uh you know for various teams and and kind of make this thing work on the fly as needed uh you know i think that really the you know there there's obviously different schools of thoughts with this in the southeastern conference uh you know looking at postponing because they they are worried about uh flare-ups on campus in mid to late august and the effects of those and that's why they're going to start later uh you know the big tens school of thought is you know we're we're gonna try to get these games in early but we can move them back as you noted uh pretty easily here so uh you know there's varying different ways to look at this and approach it uh you know we don't know which one's going to end up being the quote unquote right one if we you know if we know anything here dave nobody knows anything right you know we don't know what's the best approach whether these games are going to be played how difficult the circumstances are going to be so you know i don't think there's any reason to to second guess one conference's uh model over another's it's you know what we're going to put it all on paper and we're going to hope that we're going to play yes and you mentioned look i don't think anyone is so naive to think that we look at this schedule and it's going to play out in exactly the way that it was laid out here and again that's why this flexibility was built into it look there is certainly the possibility that these games won't be played and kevin warren has been the first to say that he said that in his letter to the athletic directors that came out last week that there's the possibility that sports will be cancelled in the big ten he reiterated it again today when he was on with us that this is these are kind of best case scenarios and there's certainly a possibility they won't be able to play big news today in college football pat is that the university of connecticut has announced that it will not play each season this year the first fbs team to publicly say that what do you believe the ramifications of that decision will be nationally well you know we'll see i mean i think the fact is that most of the teams within conferences are going to try to do what the rest of the conference is doing uconn obviously is a different deal because they're an independent and i think their scheduling was very difficult they're also in a state that has significant travel restrictions and that's something that rutgers you know could be coming up against if you look in other conferences syracuse uh army buffalo uh of the teams in new york in the the new jersey new york connecticut corridor there they're all under basically the same travel restrictions and could be facing uh the same issues with can their team go play or can anyone go to their state to play them you know what the quarantine situation would be so you know uconn what they did you can you know it makes sense uh in certainly several different areas and they they're they know their own situation obviously better than the rest of us do you hate to see it you hate it for the players and everybody else involved the fans but i don't think uconn will be the last team to do this you know we'll see how it goes piecemeal uh you know around different leagues but if you're an independent in a highly restrictive state you got no chance really to play this year so that's what happened with uconn that's interesting pat we had kevin warren on of course his son powers plays football for mississippi state we had howard griffith on his son houston plays for notre dame you are also a parent of a student athlete and you've had numerous student athletes in your family now not playing football you know they're swimmers and so it's a very different sport but still as the parent of a student-athlete what are the questions that you would need answered to feel comfortable about in this case your daughter participating yeah and we have asked a lot of questions and she's at stanford she's in the pac-12 the pac-12 did a great zoom call for all the parents of all the student athletes with 12 different medical experts to answer questions and most of the questions are you know first of all what's what is the campus environment going to be like what's the testing protocol going to be like what's contact tracing just kind of all of the logistics of everything that's going to surround their day uh and it's it's stanford it's gonna be super restrictive you know and i think most schools will probably end up trending towards that but you know what how many different trouble spots are they going to run into in their day as an athlete and how is the school set up to plan plan to to handle those and to deal with those and then beyond that what's the school going to be like when when it's not controlled by coaches or administrators you know how are the the the dorm situations going to be for her within her team you know what sort of things are the captains saying to the rest of the team about what you should be doing or not doing and what sort of socialization there will be or won't be you know there's there's a ton of questions and again nobody i think has great answers but we got good enough answers that we we trust what's going on at stanford and we're hoping that things are going to work out for the best but that's all we can really do is hope and trust at this point now those are going to be two of the watch words no doubt of this college athletic season most unusual as it figures to be pat 40 from sports illustrated always appreciate the time thanks a lot pat my pleasure dave thank you as we continue how about the new kids on the block mel tucker back in the big ten for the first time in any capacity in a couple of decades greg schiano back at his old stomping ground for the first time in nearly a decade we'll check in with both michigan state and rutgers also break down indiana's schedule and we are joined by hoosier head man tom allen that's all still to come here on this special schedule release edition of btn live 2019 was a terrific go for tom allen and the indiana hoosiers large reason the offensive explosion michael penick was terrific before he got injured lost for the season in early november what failure came on as one of the big ten's best wide receivers and how about stevie scott entering 2020 just 18 yards shy of 2000 yards in his career and you know under coach allen this team will always play with energy and enthusiasm they won last year in lincoln for the first time in forever remember seeing that game firsthand and the emotion that coach allen had in celebrating the win with his team indiana opens up on a friday night this year on the road against wisconsin how about these first six for indiana following wisconsin it's penn state illinois ohio state minnesota and michigan six consecutive bowl teams i did the math they won 60 games combined last year it's hard division but that adds up to 10 wins per team that is a quality start and an awfully tough start for tom allen and the indiana hoosiers and coach allen is kind enough to join us tom we'll dive into the schedule and the breakdown in just a bit but first your overall thoughts with the big tens release its focus on student health student athlete welfare and to make sure that while we are trying to play football we are trying to do it in the best interest of everybody that takes the field there's no question rick so it's just great to be here with you it's great to be talking about some football here but uh the number one priority is the health and safety of our players it has been from day one that will continue to be the focus even though the schedule got released here shortly uh this morning that's going to be the focus just trying to find out the best way to get into fall camp and do everything we can to to keep our players self safe keep them healthy and have that to continue throughout the season how did you coach from a head coach perspective and the school from a university perspective deal with the necessary pause and voluntary workouts and all the protocols that you had to handle from an institutional aspect well we got tremendous medical staff here and they did a great job of making sure that we were following everything that we needed to be following from a protocol perspective both locally and nationally and from the big ten in civil a and so once we you know found out that we had an increase in some positive results we we made the collective decision to to pause everything got our parents uh together for a zoom call to explain to them exactly what was going on and you know just to kind of you know be very very factual with them and have our our doctors on the call and to answer questions and it could it lasted a while but it could have gone a lot longer you know just a lot a lot of concerns and understandably so and we just wanted them to know that we were following all the protocols correctly and that they were assured that their sons were going to be in the best environment possible you can't guarantee uh that no one's ever going to get anything or anything happen to them but we want to mitigate that risk as much as possible you had one player brady feeney who's obviously still dealing with the symptoms of covid and to your point his mother debbie rucker in a facebook post noted that the school had done everything right but that he is still dealing with some pretty nasty symptoms and you talked about the communication with i'm assuming debbie and all the other parents how important will communication be not with just the parents this year but with your players on what is expected when they leave the playing field and when they are gone from the facility well i think that's a huge point of emphasis you know we talk about um and even this situation you know that the players are have not really had issues when they're with us you know they've not contacted this uh virus when they're with us it's when they're away from us and that's the big challenge and and as these students are about to come on campus here once school year starts and that will be the the big directive and we we have had several meetings that's been from the very beginning challenging them to to wear their mask social distance don't go to parties don't go to to gatherings where there's these people you've not been around that are part of our football team and when you are with guys on our football team you got to stay apart even when you're playing video games you can't sit side by side on a couch it's unfortunate it's it's not the way you want to live your life but it's what we have to deal with and so to me those are the things that it is about communication it's about trust it's about our players understanding that that we're in a different era right now it's not just in indiana it's every state in this country it's every you know country in this world we're all dealing with this issue of this this coba virus so we have to work together we have to trust each other and we've got to be disciplined and we make some sacrifices to be able to to have the opportunity for things we love to do coach as we get into your 2020 schedule you likely heard me mention during your introduction that your first six games as you well know by now are against teams that each went to a bowl last year and combined to win 60 games how much of a challenge will that be how much of an opportunity will that be well it's a very obvious challenge but man i see it as a great opportunity you know even this whole schedule you know you look at every conference playing power five football where it looks like they're all going conference only at least for the predominance of their schedule and playing ten conference games uh in any conference is is difficult and the big ten's a great conference a lot of great football teams and so i look at it as we're all about making history here in indiana and i i see this schedule and i say you know what it's going to give us a chance to win more conference games in indiana has ever won in the history of this program in a single season so that's our objective and that's the way i approach it and yeah you can look at it i just got here a little bit ago and so i was going through there they popped it up on the screen in our meeting this morning i'm writing down as fast as i can and obviously we get to print out later but just kind of going through so we're having a chance to digest everything but but it's about opportunity for me and we have a a team last year that did some good things and and had a very good season and but that was the beginning for me and a building block for the foundation of our future so i'm excited for our kids and they've worked extremely hard it's been a unique off-season we've got challenges to this day but we're going to face those challenges we're going to focus on that which we can control which is our preparation and how we handle this very difficult situation while some other rivalry games inside the big ten have been moved from their traditional final week date ohio state michigan is earlier wisconsin minnesota is earlier indiana purdue is right where it has always been on the final saturday of the regular season how excited are you to keep that rivalry not just intact but intact historically and on the calendar where it typically is well that was exciting for me to see you know i didn't know where it was going to fall it could have been anywhere just like those others were listed as you mentioned earlier but bottom line is that's such a great game for us to play and we were fortunate to come out on top of that this past year but uh we know what how much that means to our state to our players and to be able to finish the season out against purdue this year we'll be able to have a chance to host them and so and that's a big deal you know i know that other rivalries i've got moved forward which is we'll have a different feel to it but really really blessed and excited to be able to play that at the end of the year and to be able to have kind of an exclamation point um emphasis you know because the last couple of years it's been uh you know my first two years here decided he was going to a bowl game so a lot of respect and a lot of a lot of positive things i have to say about coach prom he's a good man and let's finish with this tom there were a lot of positives to your season a year ago the defense played with its normal hair on fire attitude that i know you instill and offensively there were so many weapons scored a ton of points even after michael pedex the starting quarterback was lost for the year stevie scott returns whop fill your returns how good could this team be especially on the offensive side if everything clicks and most importantly all the key members stay healthy and that's a key point we do have to stay healthy you know and everything that's uh created this off season and its uniqueness and challenges as those to be able to move forward but yeah there's a lot of excitement i mean just call what it is we have a lot of guys back from last year you just mentioned them and uh it's a good foundational group of young men that bought into everything we're doing here and have a chance to be a very good football team and that's what i expect and so bottom line is it all starts up front we've got some you know some new guys got to step in our offensive line i think it's going to be a big variable nick sheridan taking over his offensive coordinator but keeping the same system with our guys what they know and believe in and trust in and with some a few additional tweaks but bottom line is is you know i expect our football team to be better than we were last year and that's that's how i see it and uh i want to keep building this program this place is very very special to me and i love that the culture we have the kids believe in what we're building the way we're building it and i can't wait to get started better than last year would be awfully impressive tom ellen indiana coming off the best record since 1993 in program history tom as always we appreciate the time best of luck with the season and most importantly best of health to you and your family thank you so much rick i appreciate that leo northwestern struggled mightily offensively last year dead last nationally in pass efficiency enter peyton ramsey the former indiana quarterback will finish his career in evanston was fifth in the league in pass efficiency last year has completed nearly 67 percent of his career throws with 42 touchdown passes ramsey and the cats start off with two tough ones at penn state then home against wisconsin a game that was originally slated to be played at wrigley field northwestern's rivalry game with illinois comes on october the 17th in evanston was the cat's lone conference win last year as they topped illinois for the fifth straight time and you gets a tough finale added to its schedule with a home game against michigan again continuing to roll out the big ten schedule on this wednesday and very pleased to be joined by nicole our back from the athletic nicole i had a chance to speak with kevin warren a little bit earlier i know you spoke with kevin warren too in anticipation of this schedule release what was the biggest thing that stood out to you from that conversation well the biggest thing i think is something that we've heard from kevin warren all along which is that there might not be a season i think he has been very straightforward about the real risks and the real health and safety protocols and and procedures that need to be followed for us to have a chance to have college football this fall and i think it's been really refreshing i every time i do an interview with him i get messages from administrators throughout the country who find it refreshing to hear that kind of honesty and just looking at this you know really clear eyed and and not over promising or under promising and just being really straightforward about you know this is what we want to happen this is the schedule that will be in place if we're able to have it but we're still a long ways off and by the way here are all the things that our medical experts are telling us to do in the meantime i agree with you kevin warren's been very upfront about that has spoken very frankly and very openly about the possibility of there not being a season again this is a day where they released what that season will look like were it to happen a lot of flexibility built into that schedule what stood out to you about the plan that the big ten has come up with yeah i thought the flexibility was pretty awesome as someone who can kind of nerd out about schedules i loved the way that you can fold some of those games in certain weeks like week three through five into the bye weeks that are right behind it and that there's a number of games i saw a different version of this schedule uh that was color coded that really showed just how flexible and how many bye weeks are coordinated across divisional opponents and also rivalry games to protect those games as much as possible and give them multiple slots to get rescheduled to so i think it's really really smart to go this way i think you also give yourself a ton of flexibility if you can't start week one you can easily slide that to november 28th so it's just a really sharp model and i think you know having talked to um some people around the league i think they believe that it gives them the best chance to have something semblant some semblance of a regular season and to get games played because of all that flexibility and the way that it prioritizes divisional games and rivalry games the big ten released medical protocols as well and there has been so much talk about well how are you going to test how frequently are you going to test what are you going to do with the positives all of those questions that surround this what did you learn in asking the commissioner about those medical protocols yeah i think the first thing that jumps out is is testing twice a week um for for football in high contact sports um you know he the commissioner warren was talking to me about probably a monday test and then the other one that would be in advance of the game you know we've seen that 72 hour time frame in the ncaa's protocols so maybe that's a wednesday test to get a response but they're also looking into more of those rapid response tests as well and different advances in testing um so ideally you know and this was something that was a pipe dream for athletic directors a couple months ago but they would love to get to a point where you could test on friday get a result on friday before playing a game on saturday so um i just thought it was really smart to you know you know double up the testing do more testing than is the minimum requirement across the power five and also look at the advances and data that are emerging and be prepared to adapt so um you know all of these power conferences have medical advisory groups and they are getting different information because this is a new virus and we're learning more about it week to week month to month um but i i do think you know it's clear that when you look at these protocols they are grounded in the science and the medicine and what the doctors are recommending right now nicole you've been writing quite a bit on the athletic about some of the hurdles ahead for college football the most immediate one comes this week is the big ten has given the okay for its schools to open up camp as of friday you wrote extensively about what those training camps are going to look like within the last week or so give us a sense of the questions that these schools are going to be dealing with and the challenges that are going to arise as they move from this voluntary workout stage into a training camp yeah the number one thing is you're going to be talking about more players together at more time um so you know one thing that was interesting was talking with some of the teams that had scheduled week zero games so they opened last friday was you know how do you socially distance uh drills you know how do you separate um onto multiple practice fields if you have them what about do you do you shower after a practice no um you know i some of these programs in marshall for example was saying that they were going to tell their players to change into their t-shirt and shorts go home and shower they're not going to have team meals um they were going to be required to wear helmets throughout practice and then you know there was a designated water bottle for each individual player in a designated spot on the side of the field to again just try to make sure that you're not you know getting any germs any spit any any saliva near anyone else so these are the questions that everyone is going to be starting to deal with as they open campus how can you socially distance football practice even though you know you're going to be tackling you know you're going to be blocking how can you make it as safe as possible and that's why everyone is going to be looking at what this means when you have these types of practices what does it mean for the spread and potential cases on teams and as we move it ahead from the practical challenges of a training camp to were we to get to playing the schedule the practical challenges of playing a game and one of those is travel pat 40 when we were speaking to him a few minutes ago was talking about the university of connecticut canceling its season today part of that being the fact that they are an independent part of that being perhaps due to the travel restrictions into the state of connecticut you wrote about this in the last couple of weeks give us a sense of what schools are grappling with on this front yeah and this is going to be an issue that big ten fans should pay attention to as well this is a conference that spans a lot of different states and you know this is the best example i think of this is is look at baseball the toronto blue jays were essentially homeless because canada did not grant them an exemption so that they were going to have to be required to quarantine for 14 days every time they came back to canada that's not a way to have a season so they got an exemption to do that and i think that you're seeing you know rutgers governor uh the governor of new jersey has said that rutgers is expected to get that exemption but uconn was not likely to get that which means you can't play games if you're expected to quarantine 14 days after coming back from a certain state or if your opponent coming from that state was coming to you are they expected to quarantine for 14 days before you can play right so that is when we talk about how state and local officials are going to determine whether or not there can be a college football season this is one of those examples nicole our back from the athletic thanks as always for your contributions to colgrave to talk to you absolutely stay safe dude as we continue on this sketch schedule release edition of btn live will 2020 be the year that scott frost and nebraska returns to the top of any division we'll find out and we'll show you nebraska's schedule right after this [Music] [Applause] 96. [Applause] this year's touchdown [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] michigan state will begin the mel tucker era with a home game against minnesota they were originally slated to open with northwestern that game was moved to week three after that successive games against what figures to be the top of the east look at that stretch starting september the 26th at penn state at michigan and then after the bye a home game against the buckeyes those three teams beat them by a combined 79 points last season so we'll be a good barometer for where michigan state stands their added game is the season finale at nebraska repson and rick piezo with you as we continue to unveil the big ten schedule as set out this morning by the big ten conference office and again we learned a lot today ten games in total we knew they would all be conference games we weren't clear on how that added game would be played out and it turns out that is going to be a game against a team from the other division so they kept the three cross division games that were already in place they added another one we learned a lot about scheduling flexibility today and that really seems to be the key guiding principle here for the big ten is giving themselves as many possibilities as they can to get these games in right a couple of bye weeks what is included into the regular season as it stands now but also the flexibility if needed to move the championship game back from the 5th to the 19th of december that would allow cancellation even through the first or i should say postponement even through the first month of the season for those games to be played later in the year and as the schedule was laid out really a mathematical work of art to figure out that should those games be postponed the teams that they would be postponed against each have bye weeks the same time later on in the season allowing them to reschedule those games without affecting anyone else we've gotten through eight schedules we still have six to reveal yeah no doubt we'll continue to do that here as we move along on btn but you're right i mean one of the big guiding principles here no doubt this flexibility and the kind of mathematical balancing act and again look nobody knows and i think the big ten has been as transparent as you can possibly be in saying this is the optimal way that this will play out but we are certainly acutely aware of the possibility that it may not happen like this at all and frankly that it may not happen at all and i think the biggest storyline is the unknown meanwhile in lincoln the biggest storyline for the last couple of years has been the return of scott frost and when nebraska could potentially get back to being where it was for such a long part of its football history at the top of any division in any conference that it played in well frost finished year two but the roster wasn't exactly the way that he envisioned it when he arrived in lincoln five and seven a year ago but getting so close to that all-important trip to a bowl game will it happen this year well the start is shall we say favorable as the schedule gets shuffled because nebraska opens up against a rutgers team on the road that struggled a year ago illinois much improved but still a six win team from a year ago and then the schedule starts to get daunting that's why those september 5th and 12th games are so important you see four consecutive weeks from september 19 through october 10th wisconsin iowa minnesota ohio state go ahead and look up the records of those teams a year ago and how many quality players return then after a bye week nebraska will finish at northwestern home against penn state at purdue and against michigan state that is the additional game the tenth game that is added to nebraska's schedule in 2020. now nebraska did just issue a statement from chancellor ronnie green and athletic director bill moos which read in part quote we welcome these important steps forward for fall football from the big ten there has been a tremendous amount of consultation and hard work to get to this point it was a team effort with valuable input from the big ten conference staff university chancellors and presidents head coaches and athletic directors to develop a football schedule that prioritizes divisional games and provides some needed flexibility the top priority remains to conduct the football season in the safest and healthiest manner possible for everyone involved there are still many steps ahead before we can take the field in september beginning with opening preseason camp later this week but there is no question this is an embarrassing coaching staff now have a schedule in front of them and husker fans can see how the 2020 season will unfold it is indeed an exciting day one guy who has no shortage of excitement btn analyst jay lehman and jay before we get into some of the specifics i know you love this sport you love college football you particularly love big ten football and again look we all understand that this is a best-case scenario what was laid out here today but there still is for the first time in a while at least from where i sit an excitement and an expectation and just a smidgen of normalcy in our world here today right no you grew up in the midwest in the fall and there's simply nothing like big 10 football in the fall and it feels like we're gonna get not just a piece of that but a whole boatload of that with 10 conference games i want to just second what a lot of people have said on the mathematical genius that is the big ten conference whoever did that with the flexibility trying to be as safe as possible i think we all realize like you said tentatively uh this is the best option moving forward but that's all subject to change i just know from a former player perspective from a guy that works in college football like you guys and i know the players and coaches are excited at least have a chance to compete for a big ten championship this year aside from the mathematics of it all and the flexibility that was built in what stands out to you about the schedule jack uh just you have to be ready to play from day one you know we see the season opener right there thursday night uh ohio state at illinois i don't want to say anything bad about maybe a a you know a non-power five conference a group of five conference game or even an fcs game um certainly we've seen our share of upsets in this conference around the country but i do believe that every big ten football player will tell you that when you enter conference play you better buckle up each and every game from the top to the bottom of the conference and she's got to be ready to play i think you'll see offensive coordinators and defensive corners throw more cards out early you know i think you could see justin fields although their their schedule seems to be a little bit uh you know back loaded in my opinion um you know i think you could see him running the ball earlier as opposed to they saved him to run the ball later so you look at different play you look at different um ways you coach how you get a team through a season we don't know how long the season is going to be so do you do you shoot all your bullets when you can early or are you saving up it's just it's hard to tell it's hard to tell it's going to be one of those operative phrases here and so from a player's point of view what are the challenges of kind of heading into this season where there is so much uncertainty looming over you well they didn't have spring ball number one but actually that's a good thing i think college football players honestly after a 12 maybe 13 maybe 14 if you go to playoff 15 game season it can be kind of difficult to recover in the spring and spring ball is a direct i think we're going to see healthier football players from a physical perspective outside of course the virus but healthy as in their bodies uh arms legs joints will feel better i think you're gonna see fresher fresher uh players i think you're gonna see players from the jump give everything they have not that they haven't in the past but i think there's more of an urgency when it comes to conference games and one conference game loss in a 10 game season could be the difference from you getting to indy or not getting to indy so it's a quasi of every game counts kind of thing i don't think there's much room for air at all jay you know it's interesting we have seen in recent days players opting out of playing this season some of them richard bateman being the obvious example in the big ten saying well i'm going to prepare myself for the nfl draft he's a surefire nfl draft pick probably a first round pick there are some others ray von bonner in illinois said i'm just going to sit out because of the health concerns i'm just not comfortable playing this season they're going to be decisions that individuals have to make because those are the best decisions for those individuals those decisions will have repercussions on the team as a whole from a player's point of view how do you think guys are going to be able to kind of process those individual decisions being made by their teammates yeah i think that's that's first of all rashad bateman is probably the biggest announcement thus far uh what a star he was last year i think it would be a first team all-american this year i think it drastically changes the outlook of minnesota football what they want to do offensively um so but how do you respond as a teammate one i think you always want to put the health and beliefs of your teammate first and so i think minnesota's and i saw pj flex tweet was nothing but supportive to rashad bateman i'm sure his teammates are supportive at the same time it's a personal decision for everybody um we want to respect that but there is no doubt that losing a player like rashad bateman or even ray von bonner in illinois uh because of um you know the dangers of playing during this coven 19 outbreak um it's going to affect the team and someone is going to have to fill the shoes and rather large shoes if rashawn batman any player that steps out jay layman really interesting insights as always thanks a lot for your time and look forward to working through this schedule with you let's get it done fellas well we continue to look at the big ten schedules again released on this day maryland trying to bounce back after a tough first year under mike loxley the terps first game is the one that was added to their schedules they take on iowa going to kinnick stadium for that one they get rutgers in week three the scarlet knights were the team they beat in their lone conference win last year really tough stretch after that you've got wisconsin at penn state and indiana ohio state at michigan and then the finale against minnesota yikes [Music] huge step forward for lovey smith at illinois in 2019 we all remember that historic win over wisconsin we'll hear from illini 80 josh whitman coming up a little bit later in the show but right after the break we check in with minnesota head man p.j fleck get his thoughts on the golfers 2020 schedule and the decision of rashad bateman to opt out of this coming season [Music] today's for you boys [Applause] [Music] [Applause] with a tackle morgan still got it he'll lock it down [Applause] 2019 was full of so many wow moments for minnesota that you really can't pinpoint one but i'm gonna do it anyway nine straight wins to start the year including that historic win over penn state at tcf bank stadium i was on site that day and can recall enthusiasm that had been a long time coming for minnesota now the gophers try to find that same level of success in 2020 without rashad bateman who opted out obviously rodney smith and shannon brooks are gone tyler johnson's eligibility is used up and how about the schedule that minnesota has to start at michigan state home against michigan home against iowa at wisconsin that's september we haven't even gotten to october if the gophers are able to do anything close to replicating 2019 it will certainly be an outstanding job once again by pj fleck who did one of the nation's best jobs coaching this team a year ago seven wins for the gophers the most since 1904 p.j fleck kind enough to join us right now and coach let's start with what rick was alluding to some might look at the schedule and say well you know crossover was they don't have to play ohio state they don't have to play penn state but that schedule out of the gate is quite daunting what do you think when you look at it well first of all when you play in the big ten uh there are no easy games whatsoever and it doesn't matter who you play in the crossover games with the type of caliber coaches we have in this league now uh every week is a battle and you know that no matter who you're gonna play we start with michigan state at michigan state and everybody knows coach tucker and his nfl history of what he's been able to do and and building that program at colorado and now he's here and then we have three robbery games three trophy games right in a row uh this might be one of the more vigorous septembers minnesota's seen in a long long time uh and then you know you have nebraska where scott frost is building nebraska back into the powerhouse nebraska was once was and uh we'll be again someday and then indiana the job that tom allen did last year with indiana was really special he's got a really good football team coming back especially on the offensive side of the ball which i think is uh it's very documented across the country how good they're going to be there jeff brom i think has probably the greatest receivers uh one of the greatest receiving cores in the entire country uh with you know ron dalmore coming back and david bell and everybody there um then we play at illinois which everybody knows how illinois finished last year with that huge win with wisconsin and then going to the bowl game and then northwestern and maryland and northwestern patrick gerald have been there for a long time they're a few years removed from being big 10 west champs and then maryland coach lockley brought in a lot of transfers and is building that thing really quickly so there are no easy games on the schedule i don't think anybody wants easy games uh at all but we have a very very challenging schedule and we're looking forward to uh having it as well as having the flexibility to move it around if we need to the order of those games was one of the big pieces of information that you got today and the other was who your added opponent would be it is indiana look everyone's in the same boat everyone got one new opponent here today so it's not unique to minnesota but what are the challenges of learning that you're going to play a team that you haven't been preparing for in the off season well the thing is we have you know once the once the 10 game schedule we knew we were going to play only conference games we didn't know our exact schedule months ago but we knew we were going to play a 10 game season right so we've been game planning pretty much everybody in the big ten uh we knew that we'd probably have the majority obviously everybody in the west and then we knew that we probably have a lot of the same crossovers maybe adding one so you're basically game planning everybody in the east too our coaches did that uh we're very proactive about that situation it's not like we didn't have any time to do that i mean we had a lot of time on our hands this off season as we were going through so we filled it i think very proactively doesn't guarantee anything but it gives you a better chance to be prepared uh same games just different time and maybe a different feel but uh of where it is in the schedule but same intense robberies across the board coach rick mentioned it a few minutes ago when talking about your team rashad bateman choosing to opt out of playing this season deciding instead just to focus on preparing for the nfl draft can you categorize or characterize if you would the conversations that you had with rashad leading up to that decision yeah just like any player that i've had in the past being a head coach whether western michigan or going or here at minnesota we walk through the process together obviously rashad bateman's one of the best players in the country uh and you're being empathetic the word of the year is really empathetic right in a lot of certain situations and you're being empathetic because no one ever made me a first round rap pick and i don't even know what that's like so to be able to have the ability to change your family's life your life and then having covered with a lot of the risks that are involved right now i supported him 100 and he went through it got all the information i gave him a lot of credit because he did it the right way did it the educational way uh but when you're sitting there talking about a young man who's gonna be a first rounder uh you wanna support him you know our job as coaches is to make sure that's the word coach right stagecoach take people from where they are when you meet them and then take them to where they've always dreamed of being and rashad bateman from day one wanted to play in the national football league wanted to be a first round draft pick and now he has the opportunity to do that take care of his family early earlier limit some risks to be able to do that he's got a way out he's got to eat he's got a perfect opportunity to be able to do it and we support him 100 and i also know that uh it's where minnesota is headed you know when we're at minnesota and we have players that are after their true sophomore year deciding to come out to go be first round draft picks uh we're recruiting the right student athletes our coaches are developing them in the right way and that's where our program's headed because there's a lot of really elite recruits coming into our program as well he was part of what was an overpowering offense last year now you're in a situation where you have new offensive coordinators mike sanford coming in along with matt simon the co-offensive coordinator duties of course simon was on your staff last year give us a sense of how that transition is working well it's going really well you know we've had different faces come in and out of our offense obviously you know when you leave when you lose the two top returning you know all first team all big ten wide receivers right we use both of those guys um for all good reasons uh and special reasons but we have some really good guys right behind them that have an opportunity and sometimes you've got those really really special players and and with all due respect when they leave and they go to the nfl you find out what somebody else has really been able to do with possibly like the cap on the jar of the grasshopper and you take it off and that grasshopper jumps higher than it's ever been ever jumped so with that with the chris altman bells and the demetrius douglas's we got a lot of young guys we brought in as true freshmen that feel they can really contribute uh uh clay geary's a guy that that hasn't had a lot of opportunities going to get some opportunities as well seth green who plays our wildcat quarterback is going to have an opportunity as well at that position but very similar offense but you know mike sanford and matt simon uh are putting their own heads together to be able to make it uh make it better evolve it change it and make it more make it fit more to us and brevin span ford and our tight ends could be a little bit more involved i thought previn span ford came on at the end of last year as well as when you return tanner morgan who i think is one of the better quarterbacks in the big ten as well as muhammad ibrahim one of the best backs in the country and our offensive line there's a lot of pieces to build around coach one last question i wanted to ask you just give me a sense if you would of what it's like inside your program right now as you guys are getting set to transition into training camp give people a little bit of a glimpse behind the curtain as to what's going on how you're handling covid all of these different issues which surround a team right now yeah i i think that you know trust is is broken down into three things right time consistency and proof and trust comes down to this whole situation we're all going through right uh we have incredible leadership from the top president joan gable's been absolutely amazing through this whole process with our football team mark coyle our athletic director has been outstanding the number one thing at the forefront of everybody's mind is our player safety we've adapted how we do things we've adapted training camp starts really friday right so uh we've adapted how we're gonna do training camp training is not gonna look like training camp used to look like and i think some of the players when they hear training camp their mind goes to a certain spot says well how are we even going to do that well training camp 2020 has a completely different meaning than what it used to the season of 2020 is going to have a completely different meaning with travel and staying and and everything that comes along with that that used to so when people talk about this new norm it's really not that it's kind of like the new next and that's been our approach focus on now what can you do right now the only thing that matters is now and then when we get to tomorrow we'll focus on that but if you start to think about how we're going to do school and how we're going to do this and how's the season going to work how is my eligibility going to be at the end it gets really confusing really fast and that's where we've seen some student athletes kind of you know they they they get a little down thinking about those things focus on now we have rules we have safety for right now let's focus on that and then as we go further the people that are even going to keep us safer than what we could ever imagine with the protocols and the rules in place we'll make those as we keep going forward but right now well we feel like we have everything we need to be able to start training camp our way and i thought our players have had an outstanding offseason about handling this uh in a very mature way well living through a historic period no doubt on the heels of a historic season a top 10 finish for the first time since 1962. p.j fleck head coach of the gophers thanks so much coach really appreciate it you got it wrote the book sky imago gophers thanks heard coach fleck discussed the match-up with purdue and how good the boilermaker wide receivers are yes david bell is back and jeff brohm hopes that this guy is back and more importantly healthy rod del mora's freshman season was ridiculous nearly 1500 combined receiving and rushing yards 14 total touchdowns but played just four total games in 2019 because of injury he is back in 2020 and should add a much needed boost to a purdue offense that was beset by injuries in nearly every position a year ago here is what waits for moore braum and the boilermakers an opener at michigan followed by a home game against iowa and a home date against ohio state that is a pretty tough trio to begin with for the black and gold the road trip to illinois winds up september then a bye week followed by four consecutive games at wisconsin home against rutgers at minnesota home against northwestern the second of two bye weeks and the boilermakers finish up against nebraska and the traditional bucket rivalry game against indiana one of the biggest coaching moves of the off-season the return of greg schiano to rutgers gianna spent 11 years as the head coach on the banks early this century taking a program that had been to one bowl game ever before his arrival to six in his final seven years there he takes over a team that was outscored 440 to 51 in conference play last season so to say the challenge is a significant one would be an understatement but gianno knows what it takes to get there and here's what faces him in year one as rutgers head coach's debut will come at home against nebraska then the scarlet knights head to columbus to battle ohio state michigan and penn state coming to piscataway those are weeks four and five on the schedule as if things weren't challenging enough for shiano and company the game that was added to the schedule is the finale against one of the west favorites in wisconsin [Music] we'll check in with illinois athletic director josh whitman his thoughts on the illini's 2020 schedule and the breakthrough that lovey smith and the illini put together in 2019 here is the 2020 football schedule that will face lovey smith and the fighting illini of illinois first game out of the gate thursday night september 3rd in champaign against ohio state you think the country's been thirsting for some football might be interested a little in that one then it's a week two road trip to nebraska another roadie the following week against indiana home game against purdue to wrap up september a bye week starts october and then five consecutive games iowa northwestern wisconsin minnesota rutgers bye on november 14th followed by the finale at home on november 21st against penn state we welcome it illinois athletic director josh whitman josh first and foremost uh thanks for joining us i was informed by dave that he had a spy do the math that you and the other big ten ads have been on over 100 conference and zoom calls over the course of the last five months or so how would you describe the level of communication between yourselves and the conference office that went into making this happen it's been incredible and i can't say enough good things about my colleagues about the leadership that we're receiving from the conference office certainly commissioner warren has stepped into an unprecedented situation here and provided exceptional leadership in a difficult time but it's been a months-long process certainly trying to to work through the many variables around the start of the football season and i know all of us are excited today to get the schedule out in public and we're going to continue to keep our fingers crossed that we'll be able to meet those dates and now that the schedule has been released and perhaps more importantly josh the rules and regulations the requirements that are surrounding the health and welfare the safety of the student athletes that the big ten has issued as well how do you feel about the guidelines that are being issued by the conference to ensure that the players who decide to play this season are kept as safe as possible i feel really good about the work that's gone into that certainly we understand that this is a different time of time that none of us has ever experienced before uh we have put together an incredible group of medical professionals through our infectious and emerging disease task force as well as our big ten sports medicine group uh they've provided incredible guidance for us over these last number of months and have worked diligently to put these these guidelines together and so we've had a chance to share them with our coaches with our student athletes now we think that it really is on the cutting edge of making sure that again nothing can eliminate the risk of the virus but that we've done everything we can to keep that keep that risk at a minimum as for the schedule itself josh your team plays the very first big ten game of a unique 2020 season not just that it's at home it is against the reigning big ten champion and a team coming off a college football playoff appearance i know this has just been released but what do you anticipate the excitement level being leading up to that september 3rd kickoff at home i think our team's going to be incredibly excited i think every college football player in the country has been waiting for some certain he's been waiting for some idea of what the future could look like and so for us to put the schedule in front of them and then for our opener to be uh at home national prime time game the first game out of the shoot at a high major level i know that our guys are incredibly excited about it we've been building this program now over these last number of years we've got a really talented experience senior class and i know that they're looking to to leave their mark here this next coming season and certainly it's a great way to get started you brought in have been highly supportive of have shown your true belief in lovie smith as the right man to lead this program and a huge step last year including that historic win at home the last second field goal to beat wisconsin one of the biggest what was considered upsets in big ten history but it also led to more success later in the year how big a step do you feel this program took last year i think it was a great step a much needed step and one that i know that gave our players a lot of confidence gave our coaches a lot of confidence uh when you've struggled for some time i think one of the biggest challenges is remembering how to win and it's understanding that when you get into tight moments and ball games you you've got the strength and the fortitude you've got the the experience to draw from that pushes you through to to victory and we needed a couple of those marquee wins on on the record books and so to get those uh on our side last year i think that's just an experience now that we can draw from going forward uh so it was it was a great year for us uh certainly again uh six wins is never the expectation uh but it was a needed step for us in the right direction got us back in the postseason got us back in the ball business and uh really looking forward to stepping forward from that and building on that momentum heading into this 2020 season josh let me finish with this fans are such an integral part of sports and college football in particular i think every fan that was in that stadium may have been surrounding me when i was down in the field trying to grab an interview with lovey smith after that wisconsin win of a year ago what steps and what is the process that will be taken between now and september 3rd to determine the right number and how exactly the fans are safely inside memorial stadium it's a great question and certainly we've been walking a number of parallel paths here over these last couple months first and foremost we want to be sure that we're looking out for the health and safety of our student athletes our coaches those people are going to be on the field as you mentioned feel really good about the protocols we put together uh with that in mind but also at the same time we've been working to develop similar protocols around the stadium environment and we've got a great external staff here in illinois that's been putting plans together around the seating manifest and how we're going to handle security ingress egress concessions uh restrooms and everything that goes into the fan experience and we've started to release some of those protocols out to the public we're communicating with our fans today about the new schedule and uh asking for people to to continue to support us we expect we'll have somewhere between 10 and 12 000 people in the building around 20 capacity is what our our state guidelines allow uh and so we'll work uh very actively to make sure that we provide the safest environment possible for our fans and uh we want them to continue to come out and enjoy illinois football and and to be able to do so with confidence that uh that their health is being looked out for uh through our staff and in the plans that we put in place josh whitman illinois athletic director josh we truly appreciate the time best of luck and i hope that you and your family stay safe and well rick thanks so much good to talk to you and same to you and yours again ohio state visiting illinois the very first game of the big ten schedule which was released earlier today so there's a thursday game and a friday game in week one indiana wisconsin which was originally scheduled to be played on september 4th remains in that spot you see the rest of week one including minnesota michigan state nebraska rutgers northwestern penn state purdue michigan and maryland against iowa a ton of questions were answered on this day bruce feldman from fox sports and the athletic has been following it along with us bruce i'm interested just big picture what's the biggest thing you took from today's schedule release from the big ten i think it's a schedule flexibility dave look i i think at this point we'd be foolish probably not to expect there to be some some breaks in this and so at least to have it on the back end uh yeah the schedule is going to start early but at least there's a flexibility to take that that first date of week one on september 5th and move it back to late november if we can't start at that point to me that's that was the biggest thing of at least having that accordion style flexibility in this kind of jungle model as they're calling it yes the jenga model meaning that all of these pieces can be moved around interchangeably and again that one of the big driving forces for the big ten the other one was this idea of collaboration and being willing to say look what's best for our school may not be best for everyone and we are willing to put our best interests aside to make sure that this thing gets completed and kind of what i'm alluding to here is rivalry games and you know that schools would love to have those at the end of the year but most importantly they want to have them and this model gave them a better chance to have those games what do you think of the notion of for instance a michigan ohio state game being in october yeah it'd be quite a quick time around have the world series and a bunch of other stuff going on that would make it pretty intriguing as long as you know look if there was a way to ensure this game as much as any uh more than probably any others on the calendar this would be ideal and if this gives it the best chance you know i'm i'm all for it let's keep our fingers crossed that we can have a season well bruce feldman from the athletic and fox sports thanks so much for your insights and for your time on what has been an exciting day in the big ten again the hope is that they'll be able to play all of these games scheduled here today bruce thanks so much thank you dave well what a day we have had we had a lot of questions answered and again the big ten being praised fairly roundly for what it has done here trying to give itself the best chance to have a season and you can see the forethought that was put into this today and i think first and foremost the importance and the focus on student welfare and the health and safety of these student athletes that are going to get on the football field and play a contact sport we are scheduled to start as expected week one first full day september 5th but we'll start on the third with ohio state illinois dave it appears we are one giant step closer to big ten football in 2020 i can't wait to share that season with you we will continue to remain optimistic here and continue to get you ready for the season on btn the schedule is out let the games begin you