Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Big Ten schedule release breakdown | Did the NCAA finally get Covid right? | Big 10 players who are opting out of 2020

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

The Big Ten released it's new schedule for the 2020 football season and it's much more favorable for the Iowa Hawkeyes than initially anticipated. We break down that schedule and what it means for the Hawks and the other Big Ten West foes before jumping into the Big Ten player demands for better Covid-19 protocols. These demands are bigger than just the Covid-19 situation for those players too. We explain why. Finally, we wrap up the show discussing the new NCAA guidelines for college sports to begin, and it's a step in the right direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes. Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast,

your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Lockdown Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and there was a ton of Big Ten news happening yesterday, so we're going to break it all down today right here on the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast. The Big Ten schedule dropped. We have a 10-game schedule. We know exactly who Iowa is supposed to play and when they are supposed to play them. Granted, there is a lot of flexibility in that schedule built in probably for the coronavirus, and we also have to take into consideration the fact that we might not even have a fall football season anyways. But at this point, if we're having a season, we know the schedule.

So we're going to talk a bit about that on today's show. We also are going to talk about the fact that Big Ten basically unionized and demanded a few things from the NCAA. We're going to also talk about the fact that the NCAA finally came out with some darn protocols about how to handle the coronavirus and want to touch on that and kind of what that means for college football going into the 2020 season. Before we get into that, though, if you like what you're hearing on this podcast, please make sure to give us that five star review. Subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at, whether that is Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher, or just wherever you downloaded this at and tell your

friends if you did like it. And also make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We've had some great shows the past couple of weeks. We've had some recruits. We have Lucy Rodin. We have mellow from stick to football. We had Zach tweet and Jenny's dunker on a dual podcast coming up.

We have Roy Higgins, the third Jay Higgins father. He's going to be jumping on the show as well. Really great conversation with him about fatherhood and being a dad of a Hawkeye. I thought it was a really interesting and engaging conversation. Really enjoyed that. We also have defensive tackle out of Bettendorf, Griffin Little. He's on the show as well.

We're going to drop that show most likely tomorrow. So stay in the loop for that. Really enjoyed my conversation with Griffin. I think you will as well. And we'll be dropping that Roy Higgins podcast likely next Monday or Wednesday, depending on what kind of news and notes drop over the weekend. So with that being said, let's hop into the show. We're going to start with the schedule breakdown.

And I first want to make note that we are going to be doing a more in-depth schedule breakdown throughout the next couple of weeks. But I thought just considering it was pretty, pretty recent, we should talk about it. The first thing I want to cover is the fact that while they eliminated non-conference games that didn't really back up the schedule by any means, Iowa is going to be opening on September 5th. And this is where the interesting part is. They get their 10th game. It is Maryland. So I am happy about that. I would have preferred Rutgers as any school in the Big Ten West would have. But that being said, we did get Maryland, I would say, arguably the second weakest team in the Big Ten East. So nice to get Maryland. Nice to get Maryland as the first game.

Because prior to this schedule being released, if you remember correctly, Iowa had three warm-up games before Minnesota. Now they have, and then with those non-conference games being eliminated, they were having Minnesota right away. And as much as I love to hate Minnesota, they do have a good team coming back. Now without Rashad Bateman, that is a little bit less concerning offensively, but I'm glad we do not have to face Minnesota right away. We get Minnesota later on, three weeks later, after two games Iowa has played.

So they open up the schedule with Maryland. Again, a game they should win. That's a perfect opening game. I think the only way you could get better is playing Rutgers right away, but we did not get so lucky to get Rutgers. After that, we get Purdue, and gosh, that is going to suck. I do not want to play Purdue that early, mostly because for some reason Jeff Rom has Iowa's number. It seems like their offensive attack is just on point no matter what whenever they play Iowa. Phil Parker might have the best defense in the nation,

and then a third-string quarterback and a true freshman wide receiver are going to tear them up. So Purdue is going to be an interesting matchup, especially on the road, followed by another road game against Minnesota. Then Iowa gets Nebraska and Northwestern and Illinois in back-to-back-to-back weeks. I would argue that is probably the best stretch that Iowa gets their entire season. Two games being at home. Granted, we don't know what that Kinnick effect is going to be like. Kinnick might not even be Kinnick if we don't really have fans in the stadium.

But nevertheless, still being able to play at Iowa City, being able to play and have kind of the familiarity with being at home and whatnot. That'll be huge. And then also you get the three weakest teams in the Big Ten West. Northwestern's kind of an interesting team. Not really sure what they're going to bring to the table, but on paper right now, I would say the three weakest teams in the Big Ten West and three of the bottom, maybe even five teams in the Big Ten total.

So that'll be good to be able to get them back-to-back-to-back. Then we get a break, and we get Penn State after that. So huge opportunity for Iowa. Penn State is on the road. Not a great chance of winning that game, but the fact, again, that there's not going to be fans, most likely, and the fact that Iowa has a bye week going into that game. Penn State's going to be coming off a game against Maryland,

so nothing really that crazy for them. But nevertheless, the fact that Iowa has a bye week, that'll be huge going into a very important game at Penn State. I look at the schedule at this point, and I see no reason why Iowa cannot be 6-0 coming into that game against Penn State. I look at Penn State's schedule and similarly, I think the same thing. They have Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Rutgers, Maryland. Indiana is going to be a good team. I think they're going to be better than people think, but

Penn State should at least be 5-1 going into that game, if not 6-0. So that could be an undefeated matchup at that point. The big game on the schedule that I'm worried about is Minnesota and then the sleeper game is going to be Purdue. So I would say that looking at the schedule, I would expect Iowa to at least be 4-2, but I do expect 6-0 at this point, especially with Minnesota losing one of their key offensive players who's not going to be returning for his career. After Penn State, Iowa gets Michigan State.

Michigan State is not the same Michigan State that we are used to seeing. They are building back up. Not a very good team last year under new coaching and whatnot. That should be a win in my opinion. Then Iowa gets a bye week before a very crucial two-week stretch. And when I look at this schedule, having Wisconsin at home would have been great if we would have fans again. But the big thing I think I can take away from this, having Wisconsin and Ohio State in back-to-back weeks, is the fact that that is the end of the season. We are going to be breaking in a new quarterback. No matter what you want to say, a lot of hype has been given out about Spencer Petras,

and I do think he will play well. However, he hasn't started a game. He hasn't had that opportunity to get starter-type reps. So getting that against Maryland and Purdue will be huge for him going into a game against Minnesota. And by the end of the season, you would expect him to be a season starter at that point, have a good grasp of the offense, and you would expect Brian Ferencz to kind of open up the entire playbook. I don't know what his plans are.

It sounds like he's pretending like he's going to open up the entire playbook right away, but it'll be good to see how that offense is clicking late in the season with Wisconsin and then finally Ohio State the only rough part about Ohio State is they also have a bye week going into the game against Iowa so they have two weeks to prepare for the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes but I look at the schedule and I actually feel pretty pretty good about at this point. I would say given the structure of the schedule and the teams they are facing, I think there's a realistic possibility that Iowa could go 9-1. I think there's a good chance you could look at that. I'd say at this point the cap would be 6-4.

So that's the floor to me. The floor is 6-4. The high would probably be 9-1. Obviously it depends on how this offense progresses and whatnot if they can get to that 10-0 standpoint if they were able to take on Ohio State late in the season. But especially I think the big thing to keep in mind here with Ohio State is the fact that Ohio State has a lot of high-level players

that could be looking at sitting out their season, sitting out the next season. So we're going to, I want to dive a little bit deeper into that. So I'm going to touch on coming up on segment number two, touch a little bit on those guys and, you know, how that could impact Iowa positively potentially. And then also take a look at some of the other team schedules in the Big Ten West and break down kind of how that impacts Iowa and how it doesn't impact Iowa.

So that will be coming up on segment number two after a few messages from our sponsors. All right, we are back with our second segment of the Locked on Hawkeyes podcast today on this beautiful Thursday. So let's dive into it. Like I said, there is some, some interesting things happening in college football right now. We are seeing players opt

out of the season and where this becomes a big deal is you're seeing a lot of the high, like the high level talented players, guys who already have tape that could make them a day one or day two pick. These guys are opting out because they feel like, you know what, turn on the tape for my previous year. I'm ready to roll. I do not need to play given the circumstances that are presenting themselves. I talk about it a lot with Minnesota. Rashad Bateman, their number one offensive weapon, is gone.

Penn State, Micah Parsons, arguably a top ten linebacker, is gone. I believe I just saw one of Michigan State's top defensive linemen is gone. Where this impacts Iowa is Ohio State is probably the big one and Penn State. Like I said, I do not think this is as big of a deal from a Wisconsin game standpoint. I don't see a lot of Wisconsin players dropping out, but we could see Ohio State lose one, two, or three guys. This is a school that consistently produces three to four first round prospects every single year. They have a number of good players on that defense and the offense coming into the season. So we could see over the next couple of days, some Ohio State

players kind of drop out. And granted they have have four-stars and five-star recruits who can fill back in, but that is going to be a hit to them. Whereas Iowa, if you listen to the show I did with Mello, talking about the draft prospects for the Hawks, you don't get that as much. You don't have any surefire first-round draft picks on this Iowa Hawkeye roster. Now you could argue that some of the tape that Amir Smith-Marset has shown, some of the tape that Aleric Jackson has shown, and Brandon Smith, some of those guys, that could be good enough to get selected, but how high? Aleric Jackson's coming off an injury that he needs to prove to scouts that he can play, that he can do well coming back from that injury.

Amir Smith-Marset, electric, but he can improve his draft stock quite a bit. Smith-Marset electric, but he can improve his draft stock quite a bit. Now where this gets interesting as well is do they decide to opt out and come back for another season? And that would make, I mean, that would be quite interesting, especially if, you know, Spencer Petras comes back or Spencer Petras kind of plays this year. And then we have Amir Smith-Marset or Brandon Smith decide to return for another year after taking kind of a leave of absence this year due to COVID. That really sprinkles in a little bit of some more intricacies into how this team could look. But as of right now, I see Iowa actually having a strength or an advantage given the player dropouts for the NFL draft. And we're going to talk a little bit about that on segment number three, about the NCAA

policies and the Big Ten policies and kind of what happened with the Big Ten players kind of unionizing. So we're going to talk about that on segment number three. I do want to finish up kind of the conversation for the schedule. When I'm looking at this, I noticed that Wisconsin and Minnesota got quite a freaking draw. Wisconsin and Minnesota, neither of them play Ohio State or Penn State. That is nice.

Minnesota didn't necessarily get a huge win on the other side of the conference. They are going to be playing Michigan, Michigan State, and Indiana, and Maryland. Whereas Wisconsin is getting Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, and Rutgers. So I would say if you had to pick out of those three teams, I would say those three teams are the frontrunners for winning the Big Ten West. Clearly, Minnesota and Wisconsin have the easiest path compared to Iowa, and I would say Wisconsin has the easiest overall path considering they get freaking Rutgers.

Their tough game on their schedule is going to be Michigan at Michigan followed by on the road to Iowa with a break in between. Minnesota is probably toughest game. Oh, man, that's not even that tough. Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa. Now I say their first three games, actually their first four games are kind of a gauntlet. If they survive their first four games and they go 4-0,

Minnesota could run the freaking table. They have Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, and I said Northwestern twice, sorry, but in the Maryland. So if they can win those first four games or even go 3-1, we could be looking at a Minnesota team that could run the table there. Wisconsin, again, they don't have a very tough stretch overall. There's not a lot of back-to-back-to-back games like you see with Minnesota where they have to deal with three or four top-level teams in a row. So that's really interesting. I find the schedule very interesting. Like I said, this is a very fluid schedule at this point.

We don't know if we're going to have college football, and we don't know who's going to be playing on these teams, and we don't even know if the Big Ten is going to be playing college football. and we don't know who's going to be playing on these teams and we don't even know if the Big Ten is going to be playing college football. We just saw the University of Connecticut, a D1 school, drop out for the season. Again, there's kind of a domino effect with these things. We saw it happen in the spring with college basketball. The Harvards, the Princens, the Yales, the Ivy League schools, they all dropped out.

And then slowly but surely, every conference started canceling tournaments. All of a sudden, the NCAA tournaments canceled, and then we don't have sports. We've seen those schools already go away from playing this year or this fall. We've seen a lot of states do that as well. But it seems like the Big Ten and some of the major college football programs are still trying to press on. Whether or not they can remains to be seen. But we're going to cover that on segment number three because there is some news that came out from the NCAA. We want to talk about that and how it impacts some Iowa Hawkeyes and college football players all around.

So that will be coming up in just a few short seconds. seconds. We are back for our third and final segment of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. We're going to be getting into some of the announcements that were made from the Big Ten and from the NCAA. We're going to start with the Big Ten, where Big Ten players essentially followed the Pac-12's lead and said, we

want increased COVID-19 safety measures. So this is really interesting. I really like the fact that these players are realizing their power here and taking advantage of that to improve a situation that is really not geared towards being successful for them. So they put out an announcement. I'm going to read this announcement quick and then give some of my takes on some of the things that they specifically called out.

They said, of action moving forward needs to include player input. We are deeply disappointed with the lack of leadership demonstrated by the NCAA with respect to player safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the NCAA must, on its own and through collaboration with the conference, devise a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and well-being of players leading up to and during the upcoming fall season. So specifically, I went into a few more details about this, and I want to go through those as well. One of the demands was a third-party group in charge of handling COVID-19 testing. They want a minimum of three weekly tests, including one on the day of competition. This is up from the two that the Big Ten recently kind of implemented and recommended.

They want a ban on liability waivers, and they want the opportunity for players to have a medical red shirt if they miss because of a positive test. And they want coverage of medical expenses for any sort of COVID-19 related illness. Here's the thing. There's two things I'll take away from this. First of all, why are these things that they have to fight for? We are talking about college athletes that are not getting paid to make this school a ton of money. And we can't even guarantee some basic human rights for what they're doing. Maybe not human rights might be too aggressive of a term there, but basic rights from the aspect of an athlete.

They should be able to get that medical coverage. They should not have to worry about losing their scholarship. And to me, this is bigger than COVID. This is the players, again, realizing that they have the power. They are the ones that they can come together. They are more powerful than the conference. So that leads me to my next point. And the fact that the NCAA then came out with some really, I would say some good progress on what needs to happen next. The NCAA basically said, schools and conferences must meet a specific requirement if they are to conduct NCAA fall sports during the preseason, regular season, and postseason.

Further, they say, each division is directed to determine its ability to meet those requirements to conduct fall championships. These requirements, I don't want to just continue to read, but I need to at least give these out so that I can discuss them. But the requirements are all fall sports activities must follow the recently released return to sport guideline from the NCAA Sports Science Institute for all athletic activity. And they must continue to, you know, abide by any ever-changing rules

that happen. The NCAA will establish a phone number and email to allow college athletes, parents, or others to report alleged failures. All member schools must adhere to federal, state, and local guidelines related to COVID-19. All student athletes, and this is a huge one, must be allowed to opt out of participation due to concerns about contracting COVID-19. If they choose to opt out, that individual's athletic scholarship commitment must be honored by the college or university. Each division must determine no later than August 14th the eligibility accommodations that must be made for student-athletes. Member schools may not require student-athletes to waive their legal rights regarding COVID-19 as a condition for athletics participation. Member schools, in conjunction with existing insurance standards, must COVID-19 related medical expenses for the student athletes.

Let me see. That's kind of the main. All right. If 50% or more of eligible teams in a particular sport in a division canceled their fall season, there'll be no fall NCAA championship in that sport. And if all sports championships are postponed to any division, a decision to conduct that championship at a later date will be based upon the scientific data available. So lots of information I threw at you there, but here's kind of what that means. While the Big Ten

kind of unionized and talked about some of these changes, the NCAA put some of those things into place. And I think they are on the right track with this. The fact that players can opt out and not worry about losing their athletic scholarship, that is huge. Otherwise, you're basically saying, you could get sick, but if you leave, you're not getting your scholarship, so you should stay. At that point, it almost becomes a form of blackmail in a sense. You shouldn't have to worry about getting sick versus are you going to have a scholarship when you return? That really makes this a lot easier for players to make that decision because they have to, you know, the schools have to abide by those rules to provide those scholarships.

The COVID-19 related expenses, I thought that was also fantastic. I also am glad they're coming out with a standardized process for what schools need to do to abide by these rules and make sure that the players are safe in these environments. So I thought that was really great. As more information comes out about that, we'll definitely cover it. But this is, again, a very evolving state that continues to change no matter what. Like I said, evolving state. There's a lot of things that could happen over the next couple weeks.

I still don't believe we're going to have football, or at least not college football. But I'm here for it if we do heck yeah let's go as long as I can do it in a safe way and I do think the new and recently released schedule does bode well for the Iowa Hawkeyes so that is exciting on some positive news before I end the show today

the Iowa Hawkeyes now have the second best odds to win the NCAA championship in men's basketball and heading into next season. That's the highest it's ever been in my lifetime. So that's pretty huge. Really excited about the NCAA basketball season. I hope that we get that as well. So as just a public announcement, please wear your mask, socially distance, let us have sports. Let's get this country safe.

mask, socially distance. Let us have sports. Let's get this country safe. Let's get people back out and not have to worry about getting loved ones or the people that are more at risk, sick. Let's wear masks. Let's be safe. Let's socially distance. And we're probably going to get sports. So thank you all for tuning into today's episode of the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. As always, I really appreciate you all tuning into today's show. And if you did like what you heard today, please make sure to like, review, and subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast app. Give us that five-star review.

Like us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And stay tuned for our episode tomorrow where we are going to be interviewing Griffin Little, the defensive tackle out of Bettendorf, Iowa, the Iowa commit in the class of 2021. Great conversation with him. And make sure to check out our episodesendorf, Iowa. The Iowa commit in the class of 2021. Great conversation with him. And make sure to check out our episodes next week as well. As always, Hawkeye Nation, I appreciate you tuning in and listening to today's episode.

Have a fantastic Thursday. And as always, Go Hawks! We'll see you next time.