Big Ten's 2020 Football Schedule Revealed
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Big Ten schedule is set.
The eight-week schedule was revealed during Big Noon Kickoff on FOX on Saturday morning. It was an hour-long reveal, going week-by-week and talking about the biggest games on the schedule.
For Indiana, their foes look familiar from their first two schedules that were eventually scrapped due to the Big Ten's postponement in August.
Indiana will open the season by hosting Penn State in Bloomington on Oct. 24. The Hoosiers' previous home openers were supposed to be against Wisconsin on the road, but now, Indiana will get to play its first game in the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium.
The other home games Indiana will play this season are against Michigan (Nov. 7), Maryland (Nov. 28) and Purdue (Dec. 12). Their road games are at Rutgers (Oct. 31), Michigan State (Nov. 14), Ohio State (Nov. 21) and Wisconsin (Dec. 5).
Indiana was originally scheduled to play at Michigan and host Michigan State, but those have been swapped, mirroring the location of both those games from last season.
From Indiana's 10-game conference scheduled in early August, Minnesota and Illinois were the two teams removed from it to create the Hoosiers' official 2020 football schedule.
When the Big Ten announced Sept. 16 that football is making a return, they announced the first games to be Oct. 23-24. When Big Noon Kickoff revealed the schedule, all week 1 games were listed under Oct. 24. However, in a press release from Indiana athletics, it says, "Special date games, including Fridays, will be determined and announced at a later date along with game times and television designations."
So, there's chance some games could be moved to Fridays instead of Saturdays. It's worth mentioning that Indiana's previous openers against Wisconsin were supposed to be on a Friday night.
This is a schedule where Indiana plays the likes of Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State all in the first five weeks. The Hoosiers' first six games are all against teams in the Big Ten East, and their final two are against teams from the Big Ten West – Wisconsin and Purdue.
The Old Oaken Bucket is still the final game of the season as always, and Ohio State versus Michigan is in the final week as well.
Dec. 19 is being called "Big Ten Champions Week – East vs. West," where teams in the east will play the team in the west with the same ranking as them in the respective standings. The game between the two top teams in each division will be for the Big Ten championship.
The title game on Dec. 19 will be held in Lucas Oil Stadium, but it's yet to be announced where the other six east vs west games will take place.
Per Big Ten guidelines, fans will not be permitted in 2020.
Related Stories:
- INDIANA'S 2020 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE: To view Indiana's full 2020 football schedule, CLICK HERE
- HERE'S WHAT KIRK HERBSTREIT SAID: ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit gave some thoughts on the Big Ten schedule release. CLICK HERE