Tag: Big 12 Commissioner

NCAA President Mark Emmert has a strong opinion on the upcoming season

NCAA President Mark Emmert told congress that they could shorten the season due to COVID-19, the only problem is he doesn’t have the power.

According to Zach Barnett of Football Scoops, NCAA President Mark Emmert told congress they could shorten the college football season. In Barnett’s article he stated what Emmert participated in conference call with other commissioners.

NCAA president Mark Emmert told Congressional leaders that the upcoming college football season could be shortened and some schools may not play.

Emmert participated in a call Wednesday alongside commissioners of the NFL, NHL, PGA and NASCAR, which served to update the White House’s re-opening task force on various sports return-to-play plans.

In the call, Emmert said the season could be shortened where, at the FBS level, conference championship games are played by Thanksgiving, according to the New York Times. This change would shorted the regular season by two weeks; it would also mirror the schedule many universities have adopted, where the fall semester will begin on time but in-person instruction will end at the Thanksgiving break.

The biggest problem with the comments from Emmert is that he doesn’t have the power to take such a stance. While he can rule over the NCAA March Madness tournaments, football is a completely different animal. When it comes to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) or Division I, it is the conference commissioners who run the college football landscape.

Essentially the Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has more power than Emmert. All scheduling is done at the collegiate level with schools allowed to schedule their own non-conference opponents and the conference decides on their remaining schedule.

In the Barnett piece, he goes on to state that the College Football Playoff committee is expecting to play a full schedule in 2020.

Big 12 announces date to resume voluntary workouts

Many positive steps have been taken within the Big 12 to provide hope that the college football season could take place as scheduled.

After months of uncertainty, normalcy appears to be within arm’s length. Continue reading “Big 12 announces date to resume voluntary workouts”

Locked on Longhorns Podcast: Big 12 commissioner gives hope for future

Patrick and Cami discuss the recent comments from Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby on allowing fans to attend games in the future.

On this episode of the Locked on Longhorns podcast, Patrick and Cami dissect the recent interview with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby on SiriusXM.

If college athletics were to resume in the near future, could fans be able to attend games? What could be a potential plan for allowing fans in the stands? Ari Temkin of the Big 12 Radio Show on SiriusXM joins the show to discuss his thoughts on Bowlsby’s comments.

To close out the segment, we take another look at whether or not quarterback Colt McCoy should be in consideration as the top quarterback to ever play at Texas.

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Big 12 commissioner believes fans will be able to attend games

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently joined Big 12 Radio on SiriusXM to discuss the chances of fans attending college sporting events.

If you’re hoping to attend a college football game this season, you may be in luck. Continue reading “Big 12 commissioner believes fans will be able to attend games”

NCAA to allow on campus voluntary workouts starting June 1st

NCAA has voted to allow voluntary on campus workouts for three major sports starting June 1st. This is a big step towards sports this fall.

The big question surrounding fall sports during this COVID-19 quarantine mostly began with when teams would be allowed back on campus. According to multiple reports, that date has now been set. According to multiple reporters including Brett McMurphy of Stadium.

Football, men’s and women’s basketball can resume athletic activities on a voluntary basis as of June 1st. This is just another domino that needed to fall in order athletics to resume in a somewhat normal fashion. With this new ruling, players such as Sam Ehlinger who have been holding workouts in his garage can return to campus.

There isn’t a date set as of yet for organized team activities but his falls right in line with some schools who have set June 1, 2020 as a date for athletes to return to school to begin football practice. With Tom Herman and the staff already back on campus, it should only be a matter of time before the team is on the practice field and getting acclimated to the new offense under Mike Yurcich.

It was recently reported by the Austin American-Statesman that Longhorns football games are not likely to transpire per the Austin Public Health Officials. Athletic Director Chris Del Conte stated that the school has no intentions to alter their plans when it comes to the 2020 football schedule so that remains to be one situation to monitor.

There is quite a bit of money at play here with football returning. Based on the revenue generated by the Big 12 Conference’s television deals, they could survive the 2020 season without fans but beyond that it would be hard to fathom they could keep football alive without fans in attendance.

Texas Longhorns football staff to return to campus

The Texas football staff is set to return to campus on a part-time basis per Anwar Richardson of Orange Bloods.

While the entire football program has been operating from home in regards to schooling and virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the coaching staff plans to return to campus on Monday.

Anwar Richardson of OrangeBloods.com recently reported that some coaches will be in their offices for particular days of the week moving forward, where social distancing practices will be stressed.

Although the coaching staff is currently only returning to their offices on a part-time basis, this feels like a small step towards some normalcy on the Forty Acres.

It’s particularly important for all new football coaches who recently joined Tom Herman’s staff. It will allow more time for each of them to get accustom to a new routine, office space, etc.

It’s still unclear when students will return to campus, but this news provides hope that it could come sooner rather than later.

Dueling opinions: can sports be played without students attending campuses

NCAA President Mark Emmert and Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby don’t see eye to eye on a return to sports if students aren’t on campus.

With each passing day as we await a return to college athletics, it seems that everyone has provided their take on whether or not a return is likely this fall. Recently NCAA Chief Medical Office Brian Hainline stated that we could have sports in the fall. Also the NCAA released their three phase plan on how sports could return to college campuses.

The NCAA President Mark Emmert recently spoke about the return to sports and it seems he and Big 12 Commissioner aren’t on the same page.

If you don’t have students on campus, you don’t have student-athletes on campus,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be up and running in the full normal model, but you’ve got to treat the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students. So if a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple. – NCAA President Mark Emmert

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently spoke with the Athletic about the situation and he believes that teams can in fact play even if operating online.

So who exactly do you believe? Well if you ask Dan Wolken of USA Today Sports then you should probably be prepared for chaos. Not that we aren’t already under said chaos at this point in time.

It is, fundamentally, a sport run by a committee of bureaucrats with little incentive to do anything but advance whatever is in the perceived competitive and financial interests of their conferences. While the NCAA manages certain elements, like the rules of play and recruiting restrictions, most of the important dynamics for FBS run through the conferences. – Dan Wolken

With teams such as Iowa of the Big Ten Conference and Arkansas of the vaunted Southeastern Conference openly discussing their return to football, it is hard to imagine that football won’t be played in some sort of capacity. Like Dan said, it’s the conferences that run NCAA football. While that might be an opinion, there is little out there that disproves that thought.

Another power five conference school plans a return to football

Latest reports show that the University of Arkansas and Iowa are planning on a return to the practice field. How far away is football?

The COVID-19 situation has put a damper on things from a sports perspective and for good reason. All sports has been cancelled for the time being. A culmination of events led to a worldwide shutdown back on March 12th. The NBA suspended their season, MLB postponed the start of theirs and college athletics cancelled everything. Recent reports involving the NBA and MLB led many to believe that sports could be making a comeback into our lives in the very near future. The big question has been surrounding football.

Recently in the world of football, universities are putting plans in place for a return to the gridiron. The University of Iowa has reportedly planned to return to football practice effective on June 1, 2020. That was the first school to make it aware that football would be returning to the practice field. Now another power five conference school is planning for football to return on September 5th. The Arkansas Razorbacks are making plans to begin practicing mid July.

This is just another step in the direction for football to make a return to college campuses. With two major schools making their plans known, how many more will follow? It is hard to not have some excitement with the news of a Big Ten and Southeast Conference school taking the plunge that will likely create a domino effect across the landscape of college athletics.

The only question now becomes, if and when does the University of Texas and athletic director Chris Del Conte get involved?

Big 12 commissioner expresses concerns over Texas vs. Oklahoma game

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was on SiriusXM radio on Thursday discussing how football season could look like in the upcoming 2020 season.

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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Big 12 Commissioner thinking about a split season?

The Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has had conversations about a split season, just how would that actually play out?

While the 2021 recruiting cycle seems to be in full swing, there is still the unknown of how, when and if there will be a 2020 college football season. Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has his hands full on that front but there is an idea out there that seems to be a little farfetched but also could be a viable option.

This idea of a split season doesn’t seem like a plausible one with so many logistical matters to attend. Obviously where would the split happen? For the Longhorns, they have South Florida and Texas El-Paso sandwiching a trip to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers. Following the non-conference schedule the Horns play Kansas State and a trip to Dallas to batter the Sooners in the Red River Rivalry. If it was an even split of the season, it would be cut off before a trip to Lubbock to play the Red Raiders.

That is just one aspect to observe, then there is the recruiting aspect of it. If teams were to split the year and resume in the fall, are the players who sign during the early signing period going to be eligible to play since it would come after the new year for early enrollees? Seems like that would create a competitive disadvantage for some. Players who can’t actually join until the summer after graduation wouldn’t be afforded the same opportunities. Which would also have an impact on their eligibility and create yet another headache itself.

That would likely not be the case but one argument that could be made. This feels like it should be a last ditch effort from the commissioner and the Big 12. With the clock ticking on the upcoming season, this is a situation that will be monitored and it will be updated as more information is released.