Scheduling flexibility, the mitigation of risk that comes with travel and the ability to share testing protocols were the primary factors behind the Big Ten’s plan to schedule conference-only games during the coming season, a move that may foreshadow similar decisions from other Power Five leagues and the rest of the Bowl Subdivision.
One other Power Five conference, the Pac-12, followed suit on Friday with an identical plan that removes non-conference games.
The matching plans exist under a significant caveat: that games are able to be played at all, an uncertainty given the continued struggle to rein in the coronavirus pandemic.