A highly unusual Big Ten schedule for a highly unusual year
The eight* Big Ten teams will play a total of 40 games in 38 days beginning on Friday
The Big Ten cut it about as close as they could, but we have a schedule for the first half of the season. The conference announced its plans for a 24-game season in October, but so far they’ve only scheduled the first 8-12 games. It seems likely that the schedule for the second half depends on how the first half goes, both with COVID-19 issues and with the general reaction from the teams while they play a compressed schedule.
It’s a highly unusual schedule for a highly unusual year. Gone are the classic Friday-Saturday series every weekend, with at least one game on every day of the week, including two Monday games.
Wisconsin and Notre Dame get first billing on Friday, Nov. 13, and Michigan and Arizona State start their seasons on Saturday. Minnesota, Michigan State and Penn State don’t play until Nov. 19, and Ohio State doesn’t play until Nov. 23.
Arizona State’s addition as the Big Ten’s eighth team for the season adds a layer of unusuality, because it was decided that having every other team to and from Tempe, Ariz. would be too risky. Instead, the Sun Devils will play all of its games on the road, with an agreement that the other Big Ten schools will play four road games in Arizona over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
Let’s take an in-depth look at who’s playing when, the days between games, midweek games and more.
Wait, they’re playing on Mondays?
Yup! Well, they’re playing on a Monday. On Nov. 23, Ohio State opens its season at Minnesota and Penn State hosts Wisconsin. There are also four games on Tuesdays, three games on Wednesdays and eight games on Thursdays. The theory is this was done to accommodate Michigan and Wisconsin not wanting to play while some of their players are gone at the World Junior Championships, and it’s also intended to help get more games on TV. As of Sunday night, the TV schedule had yet to be released.
How many games in how many days?
Notre Dame came away with what might be the most favorable schedule of this first half. The Fighting Irish play 10 games across 38 days, never have less than four days between games (in a normal schedule, five days between games would be standard) and only play one midweek game — a Thursday.
In contrast to that, Minnesota plays eight games in 21 days and Wisconsin plays 12 in 27. Arizona State also plays 12 games in the first half but finishes eight days after the Badgers. Penn State joins Minnesota in only playing eight games, while Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota and Michigan State all play 10.
Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin all finish their first-half schedules on Dec. 9, but the last game of the first half — Michigan State at Notre Dame — isn’t until Dec. 20. Again, the belief is this is to avoid teams having to play while they have multiple players away for World Juniors, though it does create a compression of the schedule for some teams.
The chart above shows how many days between games each team has. In a normal schedule, five days off would be the standard with a Friday-Saturday game schedule. This year, that’s out the window. In fact, only one team has five days off between games, and it only happens once.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Penn State all have to play on two days’ rest, though Wisconsin and Minnesota are helped by having both of those series played at home. The Nittany Lions, on the other hand, have travel involved during those two days off and have to go from Minneapolis to Madison, which is about a four hour drive.
Ohio State and Arizona State have the most series with three days of rest in between at three each. While challenging physically for the Sun Devils, it may become a net benefit because it’s an overall reduction in days on the road — and they don’t play to return to Arizona until after their first eight games, per Craig Morgan at AZ Coyotes Insider.
On the far end of the spectrum, Notre Dame goes 12 days without playing between finishing its series against Wisconsin on Nov. 14 and opening a series at Michigan on Nov. 27. Minnesota and Michigan State also have long breaks — eight and nine days, respectively — and everyone except Michigan has a full week break between games at least once. The Wolverines’ longest time without playing is six days.
It’ll be interesting to see how this schedule works out, especially with the ongoing threat of COVID-19. Some of the quick turnarounds could potentially lead to a situation where someone gets exposed in one game but doesn’t test positive until after the next one, and studies have shown that you can be contagious up to two days before you test positive. That would, obviously, be a nightmare scenario, so hopefully the daily testing will eliminate that possibility.
Beyond concerns about the virus, teams will have to adjust their standard, well-honed preparation schedules to play on any day of the week and with varying amounts of rest. Every now and then, a team plays on a Thursday or a Sunday during a normal season, but typically, every team plays Fridays and Saturdays and has a preparation plan in place that’s designed for the players to peak on Friday.
It goes without saying, but the team that’s most flexible and adapts the best to the unique schedule has the best chance of success.
If you’re new to Fresh Ice, welcome! If you aren’t new, welcome back. I’m so excited for the hockey season to get going, and I can’t wait to cover games again. I’ve got some plans and ideas in the works for how best to cover this unique schedule while I’m also working full-time, so stay tuned for that later this week.
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