Season on the brink after big changes

The Big Ten and Pac-12 became the first Power Five conferences to shift to an all-conference fall schedule as college sports face a dramatically different landscape because of the coronavirus pandemic. In football alone, 73 games were scrapped in two days, from marquee matchups such as Oregon-Ohio State to storied rivalries such as Notre Dame-USC.

All eyes are now on the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big 12 conferences to see if more games will be shelved in what is already shaping up as a college football season like no other.

Hundreds of games have been canceled, suspended or pushed to the spring semester.

Most of the canceled football games in the Pac-12 and Big Ten are less glamorous matchups against small schools counting on big payouts to keep their athletic budgets afloat when they are already facing ugly bottom lines. Saving that money is crucial for the power conference schools — and a tremendous blow to their opponents.

The Big Ten announced Thursday it will eliminate all nonconference games in football and several other sports amid COVID-19 concerns. The Pac-12 followed suit a day later, announcing it was eliminating all nonconference games from its fall schedules for football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. The Ivy League has called off all fall sports.

A conference-only schedule also allows schools to cut down on travel and other expenses at a time when athletic departments are facing massive budget constraints.

The cancellation in March of the NCAA Tournaments left the NCAA $375 million short in revenue scheduled to be paid to its member schools, and the pandemic has exacerbated financial shortcomings, with many schools facing a drop in tuition revenue and lower attendance. Stanford has announced plans to eliminate 11 of its 36 varsity sports next year to help shore up some of a projected $25 million budget shortfall and at least 171 sports programs at four-year schools have been cut during the pandemic.

The Big Ten’s decision wipes out 33 nonconference football games against nonPower Five programs — nine more against Power Five opponents, including two against Pac-12 foes — with payouts ranging in the six figures to more than $1 million to smaller schools. The Pac-12’s move erases 33 nonconference games, including five against Power Five opponents.

Non-Power Five schools will collectively lose at least $110 million — possibly up to $150 million — in revenue from guaranteed payments by Power Five schools in a conference-only model, according to Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.

“I expect every conference will at least move toward fewer games … and likely a conference-only model,” Rishe said. “If you reduce beyond that, what’s the point of conducting the sport in the fall? You’d be better off giving the spring a try and craft a conference-only spring schedule, which can be contested in less time, less travel, etc.”