The Big 12’s commissioner went on radio for his second public media appearance since the coronavirus pandemic struck college sports in March.
Bob Bowlsby has been innovative in the way he’s talking about the impending future of college football and the other sports. He has been the first to mention a split fall and spring season and the first to publicly display his concern about the repercussions of a second wave of COVID-19 in the falls.
He reiterated some of that during his radio segment on Thursday on College Sports on SiriusXM.
To hear Bob Bowlsby full interview with @sportsiren @GabeIkard and @PlankShow for free click here⬇️ https://t.co/iSNZzyaeQE https://t.co/YKbp6xlQ9Y
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) April 30, 2020
“We will be very, very lucky to start on Labor Day weekend and get through the football season without disruptions,” Bowlsby told hosts Gabe Ikard, Chris Plank and Holly Rowe. “We will be very lucky to get through the postseason and the basketball season without disruptions. We’re going to have a new normal and we’re going to have to have an idea of how we’re going to deal with these things.”
Bowlsby’s line of thinking with a split season make a lot more sense.
When the normal flu and virus season begins, college football will be playing its final games and college basketball will be just getting done with non-conference play. If an interruption occurs, just how much loss could be at hand for everyone involved?
“But we may find ourselves falling back (on the split season idea),” Bowlsby said. “I think with the warmer weather I think we’ll get back to campus and we’ll get to practicing and we’ll start the season. We may not start exactly on time but I think we’ll start the season.
“I worry more about the end of the season and the postseason than I do the beginning parts of the season but I think we’ll figure it out in the near term. If the virus comes roaring back in the traditional flu and virus season in December through March, I wonder if we’re going to get basketball seasons in. I wonder if we’re going to get the CFP playoff in. I wonder if we’re going to get the NCAA Tournament in.”
Oklahoma is still scheduled to begin its football season at home on Sept. 5 against Missouri State.
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