College Football

Big Ten Unveils 2020 Schedule

Updated Aug. 5, 2020 5:57 p.m. ET

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The Big Ten released its 10-game, conference-only football schedule on Wednesday, starting Labor Day weekend.

The 12-week schedule includes built-in flexibility, with four weeks to potentially reschedule games. Each team has two open weeks, and there is a league-wide open week on Nov. 28.

The Big Ten will be the first major conference to start the 2020 football season, beginning play on Sept. 3-5, but the model allows for opening weekend to be shifted to Sept. 12, Sept. 19 or Sept. 26, if necessary.

The regular season is slated to finish on Nov. 21, and the championship game on Dec. 5, with the ability to push the date as far as Dec. 19.

Rivals Michigan and Ohio State will face off on Oct. 24 in Columbus, marking the first time since 1942 that the game won't be set at the end of the regular season.

The league's medical protocols include twice-weekly testing for COVID-19, with at least one test conducted within three days of competition for student-athletes, coaches and staff, with a third-party laboratory handling all testing and results.

After the schedule was released, football players from the Big Ten followed Pac-12 players in releasing a list of requirements related to health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, including what they called other platforms for change.

The piece, titled #BigTenUnited, written by "Players of the Big Ten," was published by the Players' Tribune.

The Big Ten players' list includes similar requests such as coronavirus testing, contact tracing and social distancing, that a group of Pac-12 players made in a different letter published by the Players Tribune on Sunday.

Other asks: penalties for noncompliance, a ban on the use of COVID-19 liability waivers, an automatic medical redshirt for any player who misses competition due to a positive test or a mandatory quarantine, preservation of eligibility, scholarship, and roster spot for any player who opts out of athletic participation or is unable to play more than 40% of the season, and coverage for all out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19 (short-term and long-term).

In the letter, the group of athletes referred to themselves as the College Athlete Unity, started by Michigan DB Hunter Reynolds and Minnesota DB Benjamin St-Juste this summer to give student-athletes a platform to fight for social justice. CAU represents student-athletes from 23 different varsity sports at every major conference.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told ESPN he is willing to speak to players about instituting new protocols.

The announcement was re-tweeted by several players from Big Ten schools:

Meanwhile, the Pac-12 board of governors responded to that conference's players on Wednesday and agreed to three requests.

There has not yet been a response from the Pac-12's #WeAreUnited group.

This is a developing story. 

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