Ohio State football: Big Ten going to conference-only model

In another blow to hope there will be a college football season, the Big Ten announces that they will play a conference-only schedule. That means Ohio State will not travel to play Oregon this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out a lot this year. The NBA, NHL, and MLS all had to pause their seasons, as did the PGA Tour and tennis. While some of those are picking back up soon, it looks like college football is COVID’s next victim.

Yesterday we told you that Ohio State had paused all voluntary workouts due to a high number of positive tests for the virus. Now the Big Ten announced that the conference will only play teams within their own conference for all fall sports, including college football.

This means that there will be no trip to Eugene to face the Ducks of Oregon for the Buckeyes. It also means that a lot of MAC and lower-level conferences will be hurt by these teams not opting to play them. Ohio State was slated to play Bowling Green this season too.

What this means for the rest of the season remains to be seen. Based on how everything is transpiring, it doesn’t look good. College football seems to be on its last legs and this looks like a last-ditch effort to keep some semblance of a season together.

Expect all of the other major conferences to do the same here shortly. It wouldn’t make sense for just one of the Power 5 conferences to do this and not have all of the other ones follow suit. It’s unclear how many games will be played in this modified schedule, but it looks like AD’s are pointing towards a 10 game schedule.

It’s unclear what this means for the College Football Playoff and how a national champion would be crowned. But in a twist of good news, this means that Ohio State’s dominance over TTUN gets to continue!