In 2008 and 2009, the schedules for the Big Ten football teams will have 12 weeks, giving the teams a game week in and week out. But in 2010, the schedules will revert back to a typical 13 week schedule and add in a bye week for every team, meaning that all teams will be finishing their season basically on Thanksgiving weekend.

Is there a benefit to this? Well, in consideration of conference play, yes. It gives an extra rest week in a brutal sport where the more you can take advantage to heal, the better. However, with the byes being at different times in the schedule, some teams will obviously have a bit more of an advantage with having certain weeks off prior to bigger games, etc., so I am sure that will come into play when people start arguing about which team is better and so on and so forth.

In terms of the national scene, this really doesn’t do much for the bowl preparation, as it has long been discussed that 1) College Football should have a playoff system and 2) The league doesn’t have a conference championship game like the SEC and Big 12 (and hmm, which teams seem to better in the bowls??), so the extra week doesn’t give them any more “rustiness” as a factor come New Year’s anyways.

So, while this is good news for the players who are grateful for the rest, us fans will have to–gasp!–forego a weekend during the fall where our fave team is not playing. What ever will we do???