MADISON, Wis. – The Big Ten announced a revised 2021 football schedule for the University of Wisconsin and the other 13 teams Friday, a sign that the conference is hopeful business can return to normal by August.

While the opponents remain the same, the dates have been altered slightly.

The Badgers’ first four opponents and locations remain the same – opening the season at home against Penn State (Sept.2-4), a nonconference home game against Eastern Michigan (Sept.11), bye week, a neutral-site game against Notre Dame at Chicago’s Soldier Field (Sept.25) and a home game against Michigan (Oct.2).

After that, Wisconsin will face Illinois and former head coach Bret Bielema in Champaign (Oct.9), host Army (Oct.16). travel to Purdue (Oct.23), host Iowa (Oct.30), travel to Rutgers (Nov.6), host Northwestern (Nov.13) and Nebraska (Nov.20) before finishing on the road at Minnesota (Nov.27).

Wisconsin’s original schedule had home games against Northwestern (Oct.30), Purdue (Nov.13) and Iowa (Nov.27) and road games against Minnesota (Oct.9), Illinois (Oct.23), Rutgers (Nov.6) and Nebraska (Nov.20).

Wisconsin’s games against Purdue and Nebraska were flipped to avoid one team hosting the other for three straight seasons. UW’s 2020 road game at Nebraska and home game against Purdue were both canceled due to the Badgers’ COVID outbreak.

A theme for this season, everything is subject to change.

Ending the year with a 42-28 win over Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, finishing 2020 4-3 overall, Wisconsin is expected to return eight starters on offense that include quarterback Graham Mertz, tailback Jalen Berger, tight end Jake Ferguson and receivers Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor, both of whom missed most of the season with injuries.

Defensively, the Badgers are also slated to return eight starters, including all four linebackers, cornerbacks Faion Hicks and Caesar Williams and depth at the safety position.

Wisconsin has yet to announce when its spring practice schedule will begin.