Following a meeting with all of the athletic directors from across the Big 12 Conference, there was no decision made on the upcoming schedule late last week. Monday was supposed to be the Big 12’s virtual media day but it was cancelled following the schedule announcement by the SEC. According to Max Olson and Nicole Auerbach of the Athletic, the Big 12 will go with a nine plus one schedule.
Sources tell me and @NicoleAuerbach: Big 12 Board of Directors approved plan to play 9 conference games and 1 nonconference game.
— Max Olson (@max_olson) August 4, 2020
This should come as no surprise as it was widely speculated that the Big 12 would go with this model. For the Longhorns they have two teams on their nonconference schedule remaining after the Louisiana State game was cancelled. The Longhorns were scheduled to open the season with South Florida on September 5th and Texas-El Paso on September 19th. So which game will they have?
Conventional wisdom leads you to believe they would host UTEP at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in mid September. That is where it gets a bit tricky. UTEP is also scheduled to play Texas Tech in the nonconference portion of the schedule. Texas Tech lost one of their opponents in Arizona when the Pac-12 Conference cancelled all of their nonconference games. That leaves UTEP and Alabama State for the Red Raiders. Alabama State’s season was postponed on July 20th.
So who would play UTEP as the lone game of the nonconference schedule in the Big 12? Well, Tech is closer geographically to El Paso than the Miners are to Austin. They might lean in their favor. The only question is would Texas keep South Florida on the schedule? Much like the state of Texas, Florida is a hotbed for the coronavirus.
Stay tuned to Longhorns Wire as we keep you up to date.