Seemingly everyone is wonder if we will. have kickoff this coming fall as scheduled. While the currently numbers don’t lead you to believe there will be a September 5th kickoff, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby is going to continue putting one foot into front of the other until told otherwise.
Recently Bowlsby spoke with ESPN about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for the upcoming season.
“I think you’d have to not be paying attention if you haven’t noticed the trends are not positive, but the campuses are learning how to coexist with the virus, and so they’re learning more about the testing, and about how you go about managing it,” Bowlsby said. “We haven’t been told by public health officials or our local doctors or our scientific consultants that we should stop doing what we’re doing. My feeling is you just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you’re advised it’s a bad idea. When we get that advice, obviously the safety, health and well-being of our student-athletes and staff is first. When we’re told, ‘This just isn’t going to work out,’ obviously nobody is going to be resisting that … but they haven’t said that to us yet.”
Another FBS commissioner spoke anonymously about it as well.
“I’m very concerned,” the commissioner said. “For so long, we’ve been saying we had time and things were going to change and we were very hopeful. I’m still hopeful that we have college football, I’m just more pessimistic that we won’t have it on time. I don’t see us starting on time at this point. One day I thought, ‘I better look at the calendar,’ because I felt like it was March 11 again.”
The idea of pushing the season back into the spring is seemingly gaining momentum by the day. The Ivy League is set to make a ruling on whether or not they will move to a conference only spring schedule. Others such as Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley recently made statements about being open to the idea.
Sources say that while the NCAA is hoping to conduct their fall championship events (FCS football, soccer, WVB, etc.), planning has shifted recently to alternate plans the past few weeks.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) July 7, 2020
Bryan Fischer who writes at College Football Talk and Athlon Sports is reporting that the FCS is also gaining momentum in that area. We recently posted what a spring football schedule could look like for the Texas Longhorns.
Related: What a spring schedule could look like for the Longhorns
The biggest issue with moving football to the spring doesn’t necessarily have much to do with the college aspect. However, it could impact the product put on the field. The NFL hasn’t made a statement about moving the draft if the college football season is moved to the spring, but the consensus is that they wouldn’t.
If we were to go into the college football season in the spring, many top draft eligible players just wouldn’t participate. Ohio State, Clemson and even Texas might be looking at playing with their quarterbacks of the future. Thrusting a Hudson Card, Casey Thompson or Ja’Quinden Jackson into a starting role. The defense could look a lot different with Joseph Ossai, Caden Sterns and others choosing to forego the spring for the NFL Draft. What about starting left tackle Samuel Cosmi who is perceived as a top 20 lock, depending on which draft analyst you listen to.
There is still a lot of unknown but at this point it would appear as if the Big 12 Conference is moving forward as scheduled. With the six-week rampup period right around the corner, there needs to be some clarity soon.