The Big Ten began what could be the big scramble in college athletics.

Apparently, when it decided to play only league opponents in the 2020 falls sports season, the oldest college conference didn’t bother to tell anyone else.  No other Power 5 conference, none of the 42 outside opponents in football and the dozens more in all the other sports.

Despite publicized doubts about playing the season at all from Ohio State AD Gene Smith and new Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren, the dominoes began to fall, starting with the Pac 12, which made the same choice and pronouncement. Other leagues have said they are considering a similar move, but have not yet decided.

The upside of every Power 5 Conference except the Big 12, which has only 10 schools, is that they can fill up a full schedule of 12 games by playing against fellow members. The downside of that would be beating each other up unless they decided to cut the schedule back to 10 games.

Remember, a lot of those non-conference opponents were so-called breathers between rivalry weekends. Can you imagine the SEC wanting to play 12 league foes, the way those rivals go after each other?

If the Big 12 wanted to play more than nine games, it would have to keep some non-conference opponents or play a few home-and-home series.

As I mentioned on Monday, the ACC could expand its partnership with Notre Dame and increase the Irish’s schedule to include six more ACC opponents and have every game they play against our schools. That would make almost all of them big TV draws for NBC and ESPN and command higher rights fees that could make up for having fewer fans in the stands.

Thanks to the Big Ten also dropping four games with ACC teams, the reshuffling could result in some more spectacular match-ups with Notre Dame, which already has Wake Forest, Pitt, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville scheduled.

How’s this for a dream opener? Instead of visiting virus-riddled Central Florida, Carolina hosts the Fighting Irish.

 

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