Michigan Football: Momentum growing for Big Ten restart this fall

Michigan football fans had to watch Notre Dame and others play Saturday, so when will the Big Ten finally be back on the field?

Watching other teams play college football, while Michigan football and others in the Big Ten are sidelined has been tough.

It just will never feel like a normal Saturday without those Big Ten traditions. I miss “Hail to the Victors” and all the other sights and sounds of the Big House.

The fact that Notre Dame, a team that is from Indiana, a state with two Big Ten teams (Purdue and Indiana) is also playing, is like salt in the wound. The ACC conference opened play Saturday, with the Big 12 and other conferences also playing games.

At the same time Notre Dame was opening its season against Duke, there is talk just about everywhere about the Big Ten and a potential vote to restart the season after it was postponed last month to the spring.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports offered this assessment this morning on their Saturday morning preview show, saying the optimism is high:

Brad Galli of WXYZ Detroit also reported that a re-vote on the season is expected to happen Sunday night, which basically backs up what Feldman said.

He also offered a potential start time in October, which is important, especially if teams in the Big Ten will have any chance to play in the College Football Playoff. It’s also crucial for the NFL draft.

According to Chris Balas of The Wolverine ($), Rivals’ Michigan site, building a consensus won’t be easy. He also says the drop dead date for Big Ten teams to make the playoff is Oct. 24.

"“An eight-game Big Ten season could start on Oct. 24 with a Big Ten title game on Dec. 19, but there’s zero margin for error at that point — and as we’ve seen around the country with Major League Baseball and other sports, it’s very likely there will be delays and suspensions due to COVID.”"

That Dec. 19 end date would be important for the NFL draft too. If the season ends by then or in early January if teams are allowed to play bowl games, that would still allow for early entrants into the NFL draft, while also giving them a chance to go through the normal draft process.

At this point, the NFL hasn’t shown any signs of moving back the NFL draft or the NFL combine. So if the Big Ten has a spring season, it will likely not include Michigan football players such as Nico Collins, Chris Evans, Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchison and possibly more.

Unless there is some widespread exception for spring players or if they are allowed to be eligible or a bigger supplemental draft, it could be doable.

But you get the sense that with other leagues playing, the Big Ten’s image is taking a hit. It has already, but if the league can get its act together and get in on this season, it will recover just fine.

More people seem to want Big Ten football than not. We’ll see if that matters in the end, but at the very least, a vote seems imminent and hopefully, it goes in the direction of a fall season.