Ten things you need to know about the revised 2020 Big Ten season

1. The Big Ten season will kickoff on Oct. 23-24 and conclude on Dec. 18-19. League teams will play nine games in nine weeks. An issue: The schedule model allows no wiggle room if a school should have to miss a game because a roster is compromised by COVID-19.

For what it's worth, Purdue played seven games in a row in one stretch each of the last two years. The Boilermakers closed 2017 with eight games in succession. Is playing nine games in a row too daunting?

“As coaches, you might get a bye week every now and then, but sometimes you really don’t want to lose that momentum and that schedule you have weekly in order to play football,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said on Wednesday. “Of course, if you have injuries, yes, it’s going to affect you, but if you can keep guys healthy to a certain extent, let’s go play nine straight weeks and see how it measures out.”

2. This is the third incarnation of the Big Ten schedule. Really. The league announced a 10-game conference-only slate on Aug. 5 that ran from Sept. 5 to Nov. 21 ... only to postpone the season on Aug. 11. That schedule replaced the original 12-game Big Ten schedules that included three non-conference games for each school.

3. Saturday is the high-holy day for college football. But Wisconsin A.D. Barry Alvarez said on Wednesday that FOX has mentioned Friday and Monday as possible landing days for some Big Ten games this fall. The conference will be "flexible" in scheduling, Alvarez said on Wednesday.

4. Alvarez also said yesterday that Big Ten schedules would be released "later this week." Purdue will play eight regular games--all conference affairs to be culled from the nine Big Ten opponents on the Boilermakers' original 2020 12-game schedule. Purdue will play all six Big Ten West foes along with two cross-division opponents from the East Division.

Purdue A.D. Mike Bobinski said Indiana would be one of the Boilermakers' East foes. The other? Rutgers or Michigan. The Boilers' ninth foe--and final on the schedule--will be a team from the East that finishes in the corresponding place as Purdue.

5. The last weekend of the season is an interesting dynamic. That weekend--Dec. 18-19--East will meet West. Division champs will battle in the traditional Big Ten title game in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Here is where it gets interesting: The East No. 2 team will play the West No. 2 team, East No. 3 vs. West No. 3, etc., in games that could be held in domes at neutral sites within the Big Ten football print. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is credited with hatching the idea.

Reports have mentioned Ford Field in Detroit, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., Miller Park in Milwaukee and the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as possible venues for East vs. West showdown games on Dec. 18-19.

Story continues below photo

6. No doubt, the advent of rapid COVID-19 testing was a game-changer when it came to the Big Ten reversing course on its postponement. And concerns about cardiac issues related to COVID-19 also were quelled, easing the minds of Big Ten presidents--who voted 14-0 to return--to green light a 2020 season.

Big Ten teams will be tested daily beginning as early as Sept. 30. That should help contain the virus and eliminate the need for contact tracing, which cripples rosters. The league will have a 21-day suspension of play for players testing positive and a shutdown threshold of 5 percent positivity rate on a team.

While health protocols were the leading force to clearing a path for the Big Ten to play this fall, no doubt the pressure of seeing the college football season play out the last two weeks had to create some pressure on the Big Ten to find a way to play in 2020. On top of that, myriad states are playing high school football, and the NFL debuted without a hitch.

7. Could Rondale Moore opt back in? The star Purdue wideout checked out of West Lafayette on Aug. 6--before the Big Ten postponed its season. The redshirt sophomore has his sights set on the NFL coming off a 2019 season that saw him play just four games because of a hamstring injury. Could Moore do a reverse and come back to Purdue?

"We will support any decision he wants to make ... " said Brohm. "It's something we definitely are going to look into and see where that goes."

GoldandBlack.com has learned from a source close to Moore that he hasn't signed with an agent, which would make his return to Purdue easy. Moore is currently working out in Louisville, Ky.

8. Expect teams to ease back to padded practices. Some haven't been in full gear since the spring ... or even longer. Getting into football shape will take time. Brohm mentioned Sept. 30 as a possible first day for a full-pad practice in West Lafayette. And that lines up with the proposed first day of daily testing for Big Ten schools. It's not a coincidence.

Big Ten teams had been allotted 12-hour practice weeks during their hiatus following the Aug. 11 shutdown. That has been bumped ASAP to the normal in-season 20-hour-per week limit, per Alvarez.

Brohm mentioned the need to make sure every player is ready to play this fall, as all hands will need to be on deck during a season that will test the depth of rosters. It will be next man up--ready or not, in some cases--should a team lose myriad players to the virus.

9. By pushing through a fall season that begins in October, the Big Ten is poised to be part of the College Football Playoff. That's huge--especially for a program like Ohio State, which is the Big Ten squad with the best shot to make the four-team field.

"I think that’s a real possibility," said Northwestern A.D. Jim Phillips of being part of the CFP. "... incredibly exciting."

Purdue A.D. Mike Bobinksi also confirmed on Wednesday that there will be a bowl season. So, the Boilermakers could play 10 games this season. Not bad when you consider not long ago the season looked doomed--or pushed off to less-desirable options of the winter or spring.

10. As most expected, fans won't be allowed to attend games---only family of players. This, despite some schools in other leagues allowing a limited capacity. Purdue fans won't even be able to tailgate.

"This issue of how we celebrate without jeopardizing the very fragile situation is gonna be a very important one," Purdue president Mitch Daniels said on Wednesday. "We're not gonna have tailgating, we're not gonna permit it. We'll discourage it every way we can.

"We're gonna have to fashion some way for all of us to enjoy the games without congregating in ways that violate all the rules that go into the Protect Purdue Pledge."

Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2020. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.