It certainly has been a busy week in terms of the Big Ten football season along with the fortunes of the Ohio State Buckeyes as we now have a starting date and a schedule for the resumption of the season.

Work has been going on all along but the real work can start now as everyone knows that they have a nine-game schedule moving forward and there is no time to waste as teams go from workouts and some on-field work to the start of actual padded practice at the end of the month.

For weeks and weeks, the 3-2-1 column (team coverage edition, not to be confused with the excellent recruiting edition put out by Joseph Hastings) has been a rudderless ship, little news and just a lot of speculation with some anger sprinkled in for good measure.

In this week's edition of the 3-2-1 brought to you by our friends at Hague Water Conditioning, we are back to talking about football, what this all means and what we are looking forward to as we get closer to the start of the season on October 24th.

1 - Breaking down the schedule

In case you have been in an extended slumber, you have already seen the Ohio State schedule and thought about the eight games that we know of at this point.

Open with Nebraska, play at Penn State in week two, finish with Michigan and then some games in the middle.

Got it.

It may not be that simple, but then again, maybe it is.

Ohio State should be a prohibitive favorite in six of its eight games and in those other two games, still a favorite, maybe just not to the measure of three touchdowns, or more.

There are a lot of people who are quick to point out that the Buckeyes have an "easy path" and others are saying that the Big Ten is taking care of its "bigs" here in this abbreviated year.

That would be news to us. Last year the Buckeyes had to end the season with Penn State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks.

In 2021?

The same deal with a home game against Penn State and travel to Michigan in the final week of the season.

No, the point should be made that when you have one team that seems to be that much ahead of the pack, any schedule is going to seem to be easier than others for one reason.

Ohio State does not have to play Ohio State.

Let's not forget the fact that Ohio State's eight opponents on this schedule were pulled from Ohio State's original 12-team schedule (version 1.0). The only difference in opponents from v1.0 and v3.0 (outside of changing of dates) is the fact that the non-conference games were dropped and then one cross divisional game was dropped.

There were only three teams to choose from in that argument, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska.

Two of those games were supposed to be home dates originally, meaning that the road game at Illinois was going to ride through.

So that takes things down to Iowa and Nebraska.

Iowa was the game to go.

And yes, everyone remembers what happened the last time that Ohio State and Iowa played, an inexplicable and thorough beatdown at the hands of the Hawkeyes to the tune of 55-24.

That game was in Iowa City (Iowa).

This game would have been in Columbus, a place where Ohio State has won the last seven games against the Hawkeyes. The average margin of those games has been 16.3 points.

So, if Ohio State were to open with Iowa instead of Nebraska, would things really be all that much different?

It is just the way that schedule work out sometimes. The Big Ten had six teams in the preseason AP top-25. Ohio State can't play itself, so that takes the number down to five. But Ohio State only had two of those remaining five on the schedule with Penn State (No. 7) and Michigan (No. 16).

For the power of the Big Ten being in the east division, that is just going to happen when the Buckeyes can't play themselves and Michigan State is in a major overhaul period.

It just is what it is. In a season where the "looks test" is going to matter more than any other season, the Buckeyes are just going to have to look good every week.

Hell, it has worked for Clemson in the ACC when the Tigers have been the only team with a steady pulse in that conference for many years.

2 - Around the league

If you believe or don't believe that Ohio State was given a catered schedule for 2020, the fact of the matter is that the schedule is in and with any luck won't be forced to adjust along the way.

Who got the short end of the stick in their schedule if Ohio State got the long end?

You don't have to look any further than Ohio State's week one opponent in Nebraska, a very vocal program during this whole process.

There are going to be people who believe that the league punished them for insubordination during this process. Some of those people reside in Lincoln (Neb.).

The evidence of the Huskers starting with a four-game stretch of at Ohio State, home versus Wisconsin, at Northwestern and then home against Penn State certainly does not set up warm feelings from the league office.

It really would be short-sighted of the league to go in and manually alter a schedule to stack the deck to punish a team but we can understand the appearances of that.

But as we said earlier, we are not dealing with the conference completely rebuilding schedules, all of these games were already on the previous schedules.

The order however, is... interesting.

Who else was left in a bad spot?

Try the Michigan Wolverines.

Breaking in a new quarterback, losing several other key contributors as well, a start that has Minnesota, Michigan State and Wisconsin in the first four games of the season is not a great way to start. But then again, Michigan also will finish the year with Penn State and Ohio State in two of the final three weeks.

The truth of the matter is that with only eight games (regular season) that teams don't have many off-ramps to have a couple of weeks off, unless they have Rutgers and Maryland in back-to-back weeks.

Well, Ohio State does, but who's counting.

It is going to be a wild ride. Buckle up.

3 - The season to date has been boring and uninspiring

We are several weeks into the season and it has been... well, unremarkable.

That is not taking anything away from the athletes who are out there performing and playing at a high level.

The schedule has just been bad.

We have lost games along the way but none of those games were ones that we are upset about losing.

When Miami (Fla.) and Louisville fills the primetime slot on ABC, it just shows a void of compelling games.

The SEC enters the fray this week. But don't be looking for anything like Georgia versus Florida, Alabama versus LSU or anything close to that type of game here in week one of their season.

Auburn versus Kentucky gives us a game of ranked teams, at least for this week before the Big Ten comes back and claims several spots in the rankings.

Louisville and Pittsburgh are both ranked in the ACC. After what we saw out of the Cardinals against the Canes, there must not be 25 teams worth ranking. #SorryNotSorry

Army and Cincinnati may be the best game of the week that nobody is talking about at this point. Another game between two ranked teams and while Army probably won't be ranked coming out of this week, it will go a long way in showing who is rising to the top of the Group of Five pool.

Don't worry, the following week will save us with games like Texas A&M versus Alabama and Auburn versus Georgia to highlight the schedule.

The Big Ten can't get here soon enough.

1 - When will we hear something definitive on Wade/Davis?

The NCAA has two speed, slow and really slow.

That is not going to work when it comes to making decisions about players who opted out, on the words of commissioner Kevin Warren saying that the decision to postpone the season "would not be revisited".

Until it was.

Some athletes signed with agents, some did not.

But several want back

Put Shaun Wade and Wyatt Davis into that mix.

It is not fair to these student athletes to leave them in limbo for too long. They have seasons to prepare for, unless the NCAA does the unthinkable and make the path to return unavailable to players like these, after the Big Ten did them no favors along the way.

When will we know something?

It needs to be soon.

2 - What will a basketball schedule look like?

We know that college basketball is set to start on November 25th but teams across the nation are scrambling to rebuild and retool schedules with the later start date and some obvious challenges with the world still somewhat in disarray.

Ohio State won't be battling for Atlantis. Will Ohio State be battling for South Dakota? There was talk about the Battle for Atlantis moving to Sioux Falls (S.D.) but the plug has been pulled there. There has been talk of an alternate event filling that void, even if Duke is not part of it.

But what about beyond that? Do we even know how many league games that we will see? What about the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Will those games be on-campus? In a bubble?

Heck, how many league games are going to be played?

As everyone gets geared up for football, don't forget that basketball is only a month behind on the calendar, almost to the day.

Okay, I am taking an easy prediction for a second week in a row.

Sue me.

We have already started to hear it.

"The Big Ten is playing fewer games than other leagues, they should not be in the College Football Playoff consideration."

"We should reward leagues that didn't shut down, only to reopen."

"PAWWWWWWWL."

The College Football Playoff committee is charged with placing the top-four teams in the nation in the three-game tournament, nothing else.

Should there be a minimum number of games to determine who the best teams are?

Probably.

But that number is not nine, and it is not eight.

I think after about four games we should be able to tell who is the truth and who is not, provided upon who the opponents are.

No league is getting in with four games.

But the Big Ten should get in at least eight games.

And the winner of the Big Ten, barring a 6-2 champion, will be in the CFP.