Big 12 to try and play football this fall, according to sources
The Big 12 brass met on the upcoming football season Tuesday evening, and the league will continue toward playing this fall, sources told the Star-Telegram.
The league held a 90-minute conference call that included Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, the league’s board of directors (school chancellors and presidents) and athletic directors, as well as the conference’s medical experts on how to proceed with fall sports.
The board of directors headed to an executive session around 7:45 p.m. with the league’s ADs meeting at 8 p.m.
Asked if the Big 12’s Board was leaning toward playing this fall, a source said: “It seemed that way.”
A source described the league’s mindset of playing this fall as “a lot better today than yesterday.”
The Big 12 is expected to make a formal announcement on Wednesday. With the league planning to proceed with playing this fall, it’ll also announce a revised schedule on Wednesday morning, the source said.
The league is expected to reveal enhanced protocols on how to proceed amid the pandemic, too.
That statement would come on the heels of the Big Ten and Pac-12 deciding to postpone its respective seasons earlier Tuesday. But the Big 12 will join the SEC and ACC as Power Five conferences moving forward with football this fall.
The Big 12 had been viewed as a “swing vote” with the SEC and ACC planning to go ahead with seasons before Tuesday’s news.
The Big 12’s medical advisers have yet to tell schools it is not safe to proceed. As one source said, “COVID is not going anywhere. We’ve got to learn to co-exist with this thing in the short term.”
TCU has been in favor of playing this fall with athletic director Jeremiah Donati posting on Twitter, “#WeWantToPlay.” The football team returned to practice on Tuesday afternoon.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:26 PM.
