WKU Football: Matchup with Indiana to be Canceled due to COVID-19
On Thursday, the Big Ten announced it is taking all non-conference games off the schedule for fall sports, including football, in response…
On Thursday, the Big Ten announced it is taking all non-conference games off the schedule for fall sports, including football, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This impact will hit close to home, as at least one contest involving the Hilltoppers and a Big Ten opponent is off the books: WKU’s Sept. 12 game at Indiana, the second game of the season.
This change is likely to impact non-football fall sports on the Hill, too.
Schedules are not available for the 2020 soccer and volleyball seasons as of yet, but it’s likely at least one match from one of those sports is impacted as well — in two of the last three years, WKU has faced a Big Ten team in volleyball (Ohio State).
It’s likely this isn’t the last of schedule-impacts WKU will see regarding the attempted start to the fall season, be it other conferences instituting a similar rule or Conference USA itself also cutting their non-conference schedules.
In the moments following the Big Ten’s announcement, reports surfaced that the Pac 12 and ACC could soon follow suit with a similar scheduling model for 2020.
We now sit and wait to see what the financial arrangements that WKU was set to receive for the IU game (and UofL). In football, they were supposed to receive $1 million for the trip to Bloomington. That will directly affect WKU athletics operating budget if they don’t get some sort of buy-out for the game getting canceled via a Force Majeure clause.
A bad situation is about to get worse and its up to Todd Stewart to once again navigate WKU through the stormy waters ahead.