This afternoon the Big Ten announced that they won’t be playing out of conference games this season. The conference is saying that they don’t want to travel long distances. The Big Ten also feels that its athletes will be safer if they are all tested under a universal standard.
Basically what the Big Ten is telling teams like Towson, Monmouth and the entire MAC is that they don’t think small schools have enough money to test their athletes as frequently as the big boys see fit.
If the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 choose to follow suit and play only in-conference games then it could produce a doomsday type of scenario for the small FBS schools that rely on paycheck games against the Power 5 to keep their athletic departments in the black.