Wisconsin football: might we have Big Ten football back sooner than we think?

Could Big Ten football be on the table for the holidays? According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ($), B1G officials are discussing a plan that could get the teams back on to the field for Thanksgiving.

“The potential proposal features a Big Ten season of at least eight games, starting Thanksgiving week.”

With parent groups around the B1G demanding answers from commissioner Kevin Warren about the cancellation of the season and a Nebraska parent group filing a lawsuit it appears that behind the scenes there are still plans being made.

Earlier this month, there were reports that came out about the B1G looking to play a winter/spring season at indoor stadiums around the midwest and northeast. “Several indoor facilities that could be used by the Big Ten are home to NFL teams. Those are: Indianapolis (Colts), Minneapolis (Vikings) and Detroit (Lions). Other possible facilities are in St. Louis and Syracuse.”

Blue and White Illustrated, the Penn State Rivals site, also reported on a potential winter/spring season, laying out these details:

- A pre-set eight-game schedule will begin the week after New Year’s Day, likely kicking off on Wednesday, Jan. 7 or Thursday, Jan. 8, and progressing through the weekend.

- The goal will be to not have games overlapping with each other, opening up multiple television windows to various broadcast partners.

- Every team would have one bye weekend.

- No games would be held on campuses, instead moving the entirety of the schedule to neutral sites, which are still to be determined.

- A conference championship game between the top finishers in the East and West divisions would take place the second weekend in March at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Additionally, sources indicate that there is also a possibility, with the occurrence of a similar “spring” season for the Pac-12, that the two conferences could pit their champions against each other for a traditional Rose Bowl.

It is worth noting that PSU athletic director Sandy Barbour mentioned last Monday that a new schedule format could be announced “in the next week or so.”

With the recent announcement of a newly approved COVID-19 test that could return results in 15 minutes, there is a better chance of keeping the players safe.

An eight game season has the potential to be pretty fun. Play all six division opponents and then everybody gets two cross-division games? I’d sign up for that!