Michigan Football: What a winter season would mean for Big Ten

There is talk of Michigan football and the rest of the Big Ten starting up again in January, well, first, the Big Ten needs to release a schedule.

There aren’t many things that Michigan football and Ohio State will agree on, but both programs and their players have been vocal about their desire for a football season.

Of course, with the postponement of the season by the Big Ten last week, that won’t happen. And Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren even said Justin Field’s petition won’t make any difference in terms of changing anyone’s mind.

A fall season just isn’t going to happen and one in the winter or spring may not either.

But at least there seems to be some momentum now for a season starting in January, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The league is reportedly looking at a season that would start in January. The idea would be to play an eight-game schedule, in order to limit playing two seasons in one year as much as possible.

So the regular season could run through January and February, with the Big Ten championship game set in March.

Could Big Ten be part of possible playoff?

Maybe if the Pac-12 played on a similar timeline, there could be a Rose Bowl game, except that the game is supposed to be a semifinal in the College Football Playoff.

That’s one of the biggest questions I still have, is what would a winter season mean for a playoff? Would the ACC, SEC and Big 12 really try to have a playoff with just three power conferences?

No Ohio State? No Michigan? No Oregon, USC, Penn State or Wisconsin?

But that’s also why a schedule needs to be released. There is talk of one coming out in the next week or so and my thought is the sooner the better.

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It would allow programs to plan and maybe more importantly, it would give players, fans, coaches and everyone else, something to look forward to.

The other possibility is forcing the other conferences to wait until after the Big Ten’s season to play the playoff. That or canceling the playoff altogether is preferable than trying to hold a sham version of it.

Another motivating factor for the winter season seems to be the product on the field. Nick Saban said recently a spring season would look like “JV” and if players who played in a 2021 winter/spring season weren’t allowed to enter the NFL draft, he’d be right.

Jalen Mayfield has already declared for the NFL Draft for Michigan football and he won’t be the last. The problem is that even a winter schedule won’t address that unless the NFL is willing to make some rule changes.

Last year, the deadline for early entrants into the NFL draft was January 19. The draft was in April. The league does have the power to push the draft to June 2, but would it also push back the draft entry date?

One would assume so, but the NCAA and the NFL don’t really have the best reputation of working together, do they?

Yet, that would make sense for all parties involved. Some Big Ten players would probably still choose to skip a spring season and prepare for the draft, especially if top players from other conferences are already doing so, following a season in the fall.

There are just so many unknowns right now. What happens to the playoff? The draft? Eligibility?

And then in the Big Ten, if they are going to play these games in January, there is talk of using NFL facilities to play indoor games.

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So there is a long way to go. At the same time though, the Big Ten needs to announce its schedule and a plan for playing, that way it can have a say in what happens in college football in 2020-21.

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