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Things are looking bleak for the 2020 college football season and for BYU.
The Big Ten announced that they will go with a conference only schedule this Fall. That will remove Michigan State and Minnesota from BYU’s 2020 schedule.
The Big Ten is expected to announce today that it will go with a conference-only football schedule for this fall, a person with direct knowledge situation tells @TheAthleticCFB.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 9, 2020
Can confirm @NicoleAuerbach report that Big Ten is going to a conference-only season, playing 10 games.
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) July 9, 2020
Since BYU is obviously not in a conference, this could create some huge problems if other conferences go this way. The Pac 12 is likely to follow the Big Ten’s lead, meaning BYU would lose three additional games from the schedule — Utah, Arizona State, and Stanford.
Multiple industry insiders tell @TheAthletic that they expect the Pac-12 to go to conference-only scheduling as well in the coming days: https://t.co/KVWGAZTCrc
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 9, 2020
The ACC also appears to going the conference-only route, meaning the Big 12 and SEC could soon follow — along with other G5 conferences.
ACC football also expected to play conference-only games, sources told @Stadium. Last month, ACC commish John Swofford told @Stadium if Power 5 schools played conference-only schedules that ACC would assist Notre Dame with as many games as it needed
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 9, 2020
BYU’s 7 non Big Ten/Pac 12 opponents include: Missouri, Houston, San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State, Northern Illinois, and North Alabama.
If all conferences decide to go conference only, BYU will be in a very tough spot. Notre Dame looks like it will be taken care of by the ACC, and the other independent programs — Army, UConn, Liberty, UMass, and New Mexico State — may not have the financial resources to support an independent-only schedule.
BYU’s best case scenario may be that they can get lumped in with the MWC or AAC for a season, or hope that some conferences allow at least one non-conference game.
At this point, we may not even have college football in 2020.
BYU’s media day is July 20, where Tom Holmoe will have a lot of questions to address for BYU fans.