FAU Football: The Owls will no longer kickoff their season against the Minnesota Gophers
The Big Ten Conference announced they will only play conference games.
While FAU is coming off of a season where they reached double-digit wins, an impressive bowl victory and a conference championship, the upcoming season is still in question. Photo by Alex Liscio.
July 10, 2020
The FAU football team will miss out on their opportunity to play the University of Minnesota to kickoff the 2020 college football season.
According to a statement released by the Big Ten Conference on Thursday, “If the conference is able to participate in fall sports based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules.”
With this decision, it is still unclear if FAU will lose out on the $1.2 million guaranteed money they were scheduled to receive for the road trip to Minnesota. According to the Pioneer Press, the contract with FAU says, “If either team fails to appear for the game, that team shall pay to the other team, as its sole and exclusive remedy, a cancellation fee of $750,000.”
Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post reported, “A statement from an FAU athletics spokesperson said the school is aware of the Big Ten’s decision and is looking into the matter further at this time.”
It might be difficult for FAU to replace Minnesota with another Power 5 (P5) opponent, as the majority of the other P5 conferences are also considering conference only schedules for the upcoming season.
With the announcement from the Big Ten, FAU is now slated to kick off their season Sept. 12 at FAU Stadium against Stony Brook.
FAU’s remaining out of conference games on their schedule are Sept. 19 on the road against Georgia Southern and Sept. 26 at home against South Florida.
With more conferences looking at playing only conference games this season, Conference USA has not decided yet on how the upcoming season will play out.
The Owls first C-USA game of the season is Oct. 3 at FAU Stadium against Charlotte.
The coronavirus is constantly changing across the country and as the southern parts of the United States continue to see cases rise, it makes it difficult to imagine that football will be played this fall.
More scheduling announcements are sure to follow in the coming weeks with the college football season right around the corner.
Jensen Jennings is the sports editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Jensen_Jennings.
