Source: Big Ten Game Times for Opening Week to be Announced Monday
Big Ten football fans across the Midwest and around the country went another sun-splashed Saturday without football, but thankfully there's only one more weekend of pain to go.
The conference schedule resumes the weekend of Oct. 24. Big Ten fans can't wait after the league season has started and stopped a few times, and that's made some league fans angry — and just about everyone impatient.
The league office is adding to their angst, too, because after releasing the latest schedule — the third version that we've had this year — they still haven't announced game times or TV information for the nine-week agenda, and that includes the opening week that is now just 13 days away.
They haven't even officially released dates yet, and that's causing a problem now, not only for fans, but for coaches, too. The league schedules originally had Thursday night and Friday night standalone games during Week 1, and no one even knows for sure yet if that's going to happen again. That's causing problems with setting up this final week of "fall camp'' all around the league.
According to a network source, we shouldn't have to wait much longer. The source, who isn't allowed to speak on league matters, said that the opening week kickoff times should be announced at some time on Monday. He also said that several key games later in the year — like Ohio State vs. Michigan and Nebraska vs. Iowa — probably will have their kickoff times announced on Monday, too. He had no comment on potential Friday games.
The Big Ten original had defending champion Ohio State playing Illinois on a Thursday night during the opening week, with upstart Indiana playing Big Ten West champion Wisconsin on Friday.
Two prominent matchups worthy of a national spotlight are on the revised schedule. Indiana opens at home against No. 9 Penn State and No. 20 Michigan travels to No. 25 Minnesota in the only matchup of ranked teams during the first week.
During a normal year, announcing the game times more than a week out never happens anyway, but since this entire fall football mess has been a communication nightmare, you'd think they would have been out there ahead of all this news a little quicker.
FOX spills the first bit of beans on Saturday during its pregame show, saying that they will be live in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday, Oct. 24 when the Buckeyes take on Nebraska. They'll do their pregame show from there, and then FOX's national game at Noon ET will feature Ohio State and Nebraska.
Here's the schedule for that first weekend of Big Ten football, on the weekend of Oct. 24, with current national rankings and last year's record included:
- Nebraska (5-7) at No. 6 Ohio State (13-1), Noon ET, (TV: FOX)
- No. 9 Penn State (11-2) at Indiana (8-5)
- No. 20 Michigan (9-4) at No. 25 Minnesota (11-2)
- Illinois (6-7) at No. 16 Wisconsin (10-4)
- Iowa (10-3) at Purdue (4-8)
- Maryland (3-9) at Northwestern (3-9)
- Rutgers (2-10) at Michigan State (7-6)
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Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.