The Big Ten was the first major conference to announce earlier this month that only league games would be played this season in fall sports during the pandemic.
College football is slowly saying goodbye to nonconference play. Is college basketball next in line?

"Yeah that certainly is an option," Gophers coach Richard Pitino told the Star Tribune recently. "Everybody has been talking about it. It's been good for me in a sense, because I sometimes think about the future too much. We have no idea."
The Gophers 2020-21 men's basketball nonconference schedule hasn't been released yet. Typically by August, there already would be league opponents to look at.
Pitino's team is opening the season Nov. 11 vs. Albany at Williams Arena.
Other home games in November include Kent State, Long Island and Green Bay. They are scheduled to open the Hall of Fame Tip-Off on Nov. 21 against Central Florida at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. The HOF Tip-Off's second game would be Nov. 22 either against Rhode Island or Marquette.
In December, the Gophers are playing in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge (no opponent announced) on the road. They also have home games vs. Mississippi State, Fort Wayne, North Dakota and likely St. Louis (game still being finalized). Two early December conference games also haven't been announced by the Big Ten. The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 is a good reason for waiting to release the schedule.
"The obvious thing is figure out what's going on in the fall, especially with football," Pitino said. "That's the most pressing thing. Obviously because we don't start until the winter. College sports is on a different level than pro sports. It's a totally different dynamic. We can't create these bubbles like the NBA and NHL are doing. The NBA has shown that it's working. But there is a different dynamic when you have 35,000 students on campus. The most important thing is the wellbeing of the student-athletes."