Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was on SiriusXM radio on Thursday discussing how football season could look like in the upcoming 2020 season. With COVID-19 still ever-present in our world and probably still present come August and September, nobody is quite sure what this fall is going to look like from an athletics standpoint.
Bowlsby said “we will be very, very lucky,” to start the season on time and to complete the entire season “without disruptions.”
At the moment, all but one (Oklahoma State plays Thursday, September 3 against Oregon State) Big 12 team is scheduled to begin their season on September 5 during Labor Day weekend. Each will have non-conference games, with notable games being Texas hosting USF, Baylor playing Ole Miss, West Virginia playing Florida State, and TCU hosting California.
The commissioner made headlines in an earlier April interview, stating they were looking into splitting the season up. Some games could be played in fall while wrapping up the regular season in the spring.
Another concern brought up by Commissioner Bowlsby was the possibility of a neutral site game such as the Texas-Oklahoma matchup held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas every year.
“When you think about a Petri dish for spreading infection, can you think of one that’s better than the State Fair of Texas,” Bowlsby said. “People are jammed in there and they’re enthusiastic. It’s about a perfect place to transmit any kind of infection.”
While the same could be said about any event with a minimum of 45,000+ people in attendance, the State Fair of Texas would attract more than just football fans if open. People from across the globe travel to attend the State Fair, making it a great place for the coronavirus to spread.
Despite his concerns about completing the season on time, Bowlsby thinks “with the warmer weather,” teams will be able to get back on campus and start practicing to begin 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,” said Bowlsby.
Bowlsby’s claims make it seem as if Texas will play football at some point this fall, either in September or October. The question becomes when, where, and how teams are able to complete their seasons without putting millions of people at risk for the coronavirus.
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