Big Ten adopts conference-only football schedule, eliminating UW’s season-opener vs. Michigan
Washington won’t be starting the 2020 season as planned.
The Huskies were scheduled to open the year with a much-anticipated game against Michigan on Sept. 5 at Husky Stadium. But then the Big Ten Conference announced on Thursday that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would play a conference-only schedule for fall sports.
UW’s game against Michigan was the first in a scheduled home-and-home set to continue in Ann Arbor, Mich. in 2021. It’s unknown now whether that game will take place, or whether the game in Seattle can be rescheduled for a future season. Both the Huskies and Michigan have openings in their 2023 non-conference schedules, which could provide a solution.
“Earlier today Warde Manuel notified me of the Big Ten’s decision to play a conference-only schedule this fall, cancelling our Sept. 5 game with Michigan at Husky Stadium,” said UW athletic director Jennifr Cohen.
“Our fans and football program have been looking forward to this game for several years, but we understand this decision was made due to the impact of COVID-19 and prioritizing the health and well-being of student-athletes. Warde and I are currently in the process of discussing details on a future return date and will provide updates as they become available.”
The Big Ten is the first Power Five Conference to cancel the non-conference schedule. The Atlantic Coast Conference is suspending fall sports until Sept. 1, while the Ivy League announced this week it was canceling all sports.
The Pac-12 has yet to make a statement on the upcoming season, though reports surfaced Thursday that both the ACC and the Pac-12 were also expected to eliminate non-conference games in the coming days. That would wipe out UW’s home games against Sacramento State (Sept. 12) and Utah State (Sept. 19).
Due to financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, UW already announced cost-saving measures for FY21, which begins July 21.
Those cuts will save the athletic department 10% — or approximately $5 million — in the staff line item of the budget. A 15% total reduction in overall operating budget will save approximately $8.5 million. In total, the actions should save UW nearly $13 million.
In May, Cohen and chief financial officer Kate Cullen gave a presentation to the Board of Regents that modeled several possibilities for the financial challenges the university could face in the coming months.
The best-case scenario budget assumed a full fall season — football included — with fans in the stands. Even so, it projected a FY21 deficit of nearly $10 million that would drop to approximately $1.6 million with mitigation strategies.
Now, though, the best case scenario no longer exists. The Huskies are down at least one game with the rest of the non-conference slate in serious jeopardy. In June, Cohen said this kind of situation was more likely than a full-season cancellation.
“The really complicated financial issue, probably the one we’re most likely going to be in, is that we have other sports (other than football) but we don’t have the revenue to cover them,” she said then, “and that’s very complicated because of the way our athletic department revenue structure work. We’re not really a business, even though we’re a big operation. We’re part of higher education.
“It’s a complicated model to support broad-based teams and students. … I’m spending a lot of time in that content because we’re very committed to all of our programs at Washington. Every student-athlete matters to us and their experience matters to us. We’re trying to get creative around that model.”
The Huskies are scheduled to open conference play at Oregon on Oct. 3.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 1:44 PM.
