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Report: B1G cancels nonconference season for baseball, softball in 2021
Published:
The coronavirus is having an impact on the Big Ten’s spring season.
Kendall Rogers, a co-managing editor at D1 Baseball, reports that the league has decided to cancel all non-conference games for the duration of the upcoming spring season in both baseball and softball.
BREAKING: The @bigten Conference will not have non-conference games aginst non #BigTen teams in 2021 in baseball or softball, sources tell @d1baseball. Coaches, however, are expected to aim for as many games as possible. More to come.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) November 13, 2020
According to Rogers, conference coaches are expected to schedule as many games as possible against league opponents, even scheduling multiple series as non-conference matchups in spite of both teams being part of the Big Ten.
This option is both a way for schools to compete consistently and to add games with strength of schedule metrics for post-season consideration without traveling across the country.
Exactly what form this scheduling will take is not presently known. Additional news will be published when it becomes available.
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.