It’s been great having sports back. Hockey starts at noon Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific, followed shortly thereafter by NBA and WNBA basketball and baseball. This weekend, the PGA Championship is being played, too. Sports on TV all day is the way it should always be.

It’d be better if I could attend these games, but it’s better than nothing. Let’s hope we can continue to play sports as safely as possible so we get college football and college basketball this year!

Speaking of college football, there have been some major scheduling items announced this week, with more to come (looking at you, SEC). Let’s talk about some schedules and then dive into the rest of this week’s Mailbag questions:

@SChinni12:

Now that the Big Ten has released its 2020 schedule, it seems the league did its best to “protect” Playoff contenders like Ohio State and Wisconsin. Was that the right move?

In the new Big Ten schedule, Ohio State and Wisconsin won’t play each other, and the Buckeyes also didn’t pick up Minnesota in the East-West crossover games. Meanwhile, Wisconsin doesn’t have to play Penn State, either.

I don’t know how I feel about that just yet. On one hand, it will help the Buckeyes and Badgers potentially remain unbeaten until the B1G Championship Game. On the other hand, it takes away some potentially marquee games that would boost those teams’ strength of schedule.

The ACC has Clemson and Notre Dame playing, which should be a big game for both schools. We’ll need to get a good look at the SEC schedule to see what advantages/disadvantages are created for top teams like Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

For now, though, I think it’s a risky plan to protect those teams in the Big Ten. If they lose a game they’re supposed to win, that could tank their Playoff chances in a huge way.

Robert:

If your school could only fill its stadium to 20-25% capacity, would you prefer those to be students (for a rowdy atmosphere) or alumni donors (to make up for gameday ticket losses and secure future cash flow to the program)?

If I can only pick one, I’d have to go with the students. I think players and coaches would agree with me on that one, as students are a huge part of the gameday atmosphere.

However, I don’t think you need to make that an either/or decision. Let’s take a 100,000-person stadium, for example. If you make even 1% of that capacity big-time boosters, that’s 1,000 people. Then you could still have 24% capacity for students and other fans.

I’d definitely want to cater to boosters as much as possible this season to secure future finances, but not at the expense of keeping students out of the stadiums. Hopefully, that’s a decision schools will get to make, but it’s also possible we see games in front of empty stadiums this season.

Joe:

Is there a particular “wildcard” player in the SEC this fall who not many people are talking about who could play a huge role for his team?

I could be biased as a Mizzou graduate, but I think QB Shawn Robinson is the biggest wildcard in the conference. He transferred to Mizzou last year but had to sit out due to NCAA transfer rules.

He’ll battle Connor Bazelak for the starting job, but with Bazelak coming off an ACL injury, I’d give Robinson the edge in that battle. He was a 4-star dual-threat quarterback coming out of high school and he showed flashes of brilliance during his brief time at TCU.

He’ll work with an offensive-minded head coach in Eliah Drinkwitz this fall, and if he plays better than Kelly Bryant did in 2019 (when Bryant battled a few injuries), he has the weapons around him to succeed.

If he comes in and has success right away, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Mizzou pull off a couple of upsets this year.

@Dobbe8:

Does Brad Pitt still have “it”?

Considering he just won the “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar last year for “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” I think it’s safe to say Brad Pitt still has it (whatever that is). In fact, I didn’t know anyone was saying he’d lost it.

After “Fight Club” in 1999 and “Ocean’s Eleven” in 2001, he went on a bit of a cold streak, but he was back in full force in the 2010s — “Moneyball” in 2011, “World War Z” in 2013, “The Big Short” in 2015 and others. He’s also a producer now, so yeah, things are still going just fine for Pitt. He left Mizzou just before graduating, but that decision seems to have paid off for him nicely.

Can we just have him come to all the Mizzou games this fall?

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.