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Big Ten to start playing football September 3
By: Mike Stiles - Wednesday, August 5, 2020


(UNDATED) - The Big Ten will play a 10-game, conference-only football schedule that begins Labor Day weekend and includes ample flexibility, the league announced Wednesday morning. Each team has two open weeks, and the schedule has four weeks built in to reschedule games. The model allows for Week 1 and Week 2 games to be moved to later in the season. The regular season is set to wrap up Nov. 21 with an open date for all teams on Nov. 28, and the league championship game is set for Dec. 5 with the ability to move it back a week or two. Michigan and Ohio State will face each other October 24, the first time since 1942 that the rivals will not play at the end of the regular season. The Indiana-Purdue game, pitting rivals from opposite divisions, will take place Nov. 21. The Big Ten also announced medical protocols, including twice-weekly testing for COVID-19. The league will use a third-party laboratory to conduct centralized testing and "consistency in surveillance and pre-competition testing." The Big Ten on July 9 became the first FBS conference to reveal a general scheduling model, saying that all of its fall sports, including football, would operate with a league-only slate. But the league had held off on announcing specifics for football as it evaluated medical information about the coronavirus pandemic.

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