Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Amidst a pandemic where conferences are looking at playing no non-conference games, the Big 12 is hoping to play a 12-game season.
“They’re still looking to play the 12-game schedule and so are we,” Bowlsby told ESPN about the SEC. “Obviously if one of us would make the decision to go to conference-only, that would affect the others. I’m guessing we would get some advance notice on that, but nobody has made that decision yet — at least not among the (SEC, ACC or Big 12).”
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We all saw what an outbreak of COVID-19 has done to MLB, but the Big 12 commissioner says to expect much of the same if season is played.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, contacted by @DMRegister after Marlins canceled Monday night's game: “If we are advised that it is OK to play the (football) season, we should all expect that there will be such disruptions."
— Randy Peterson (@RandyPete) July 27, 2020
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For the fifth straight season, OU has placed first in the Big 12’s preseason media poll.
For the fifth straight season, OU has placed first in the Big 12’s preseason media poll.
📆: A BIG day for #Big12FB
Your very first look 👀 at the 2020 Preseason Poll➡️ https://t.co/6Jpo0qxdlv pic.twitter.com/32jZto1sB3
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) July 17, 2020
The Sooners took home 80 of the 90 total first-place votes. Rivals Oklahoma State and Texas placed second and third respectively.
Last season, OU defeated Baylor in the Big 12 Championship, 30-23, to claim their fifth straight conference title.
Outside of OU, no team has ever won the Big 12 championship more than two years in a row.
This season, the Sooners will be going for their sixth straight and 14th overall.
The next closest program in terms of Big 12 titles is Texas with three.
The conference also announced its preseason all-conference team on Thursday. Five Sooners made the list.
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The Big 12 conference will not yet make a decision regarding COVID-19 and the upcoming college football season
The Big 12 conference will not yet make a decision regarding COVID-19 and the upcoming college football season.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby explained on Tuesday that the conference will continue to monitor before makings its final decision.
”I believe it’s too early to be making those decisions,” Bowlsby told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “Frankly, we haven’t been advised to do that by our scientists and medical advisors. We’ve been advised to move forward slowly and constantly re-evaluate and that’s what we’ll keep doing until we’ve told it’s inadvisable.”
The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have both opted for a conference-only schedule already.
Coronavirus numbers have spiked across the country recently, leaving a fog of doubt over whether the season will happen at all.
Big 12 AD’s were briefed on Tuesday by Kansas State team physician Dr. Kyle Goerl regarding COVID-19 testing and monitoring.
“We’re going to have to be patient and continue to read the tea leaves and see what the next two or three or four weeks bring us.” Bowlsby said. “If things get worse, that will inform one set of decisions. If things get better, that will inform another set of decisions.”
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With recent announcements by the Ivy League, PAC 12 and Big Ten Conferences, it feels like the idea of football in the fall is a long shot.
It has been a total of 121 days since the sports world came to a stand still. A total of four months since any athletic competitions have taken place on the Forty Acres or ones that have involved the University of Texas. The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were cancelled. As were the NCAA tournaments to crown new national champions. The Longhorns promising start in baseball was halted. The historic start by the Texas Longhorns women’s softball team interrupted.
The hope was that after those four months that we might see the Texas Longhorns football team take the field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 5th. The chances of that opening kickoff against the South Florida Bulls seems like the longest of longshots with each passing day. While other countries are seeing a return to their sports leagues, football doesn’t feel like much of a possibility.
Each day there has been news about conference leadership having meetings about how sports can return with the health and safety of the athletes and staff in mind. However, when the Big Ten cancelled all non-conference games more doubt started to creep in. Not to mention that came off the heels of the Ivy League cancelling all fall sports. Then the PAC 12 and ACC were both rumored to follow the lead of the Big Ten.
“One thing we have to realize that this is not a fait accompli that we’re gonna have sports in the fall,” Warren said. “We may not have sports in the fall. We may not have a college football season in the Big Ten.” – USA TODAY Sports via the Detroit Free Press
Hope. It is something that we have all held on to for the last several months. Trying to go about a semblance of a normal life believing that we could very well have football. Was it having faith that sports would return or was it being naive? If the commissioner of a major conference doesn’t believe that we will have sports, why should we? It didn’t stop with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren either.
The SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has yet to make a decision on cancelling non-conference games. However, his recent statement echoed the sentiment of Warren. Sankey stated his concern for football this fall as “high to very high” according to Andrea Adelson of ESPN.
“We are running out of time to correct and get things right.”
The PAC 12 followed the decision to cancel the non-conference games and it was recently reported commissioner Larry Scott tested positive for COVID-19. It almost feels impossible that we do see football and while others have come to grips with that idea, some of us held onto hope.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been bullish on the idea of playing football this fall and it starting on time. That was his stance back in late May. A little over a month later, is he still feeling that way? In response to the two conferences that have announced the changes to their schedules, if feels as if Bowlsby is in no hurry to make a decision.
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports recently published an article discussing where Bowlsby currently sits.
“We need to do what our doctors and our scientists are telling us, which is move slowly ahead and constantly reevaluate,” Bowlsby told CBS Sports on Thursday. “The virus is going to decide whether we’re ready and able to play.”
He goes on to say that the Big 12 commissioner wasn’t happy with the quick decision from Warren. In a time where all the power five schools should be in unison, they are very much operating on their own.
“[Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren] never gave any indication that this is what they were going to do,” Bowlsby said. “In fact, he told us this morning at some length that he was not going to surprise anybody and that he would get to us in advance.”
Bob Bowlsby and the Big 12 are aiming for a concrete decision in late July. That deadline would put them just over five weeks away from the start of the college football season.
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The Big 12 is reportedly eying late July as a timetable to make a decision on the future of fall sports.
The Big 12 is reportedly eyeing late July as a timetable to make a decision on the future of fall sports.
When told that the ACC was planning on making a decision later in July, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told ESPN that the conference is “kind of on the same schedule.”
The decision looms in light of the Big Ten conference opting to play a conference-only schedule for all fall sports as of Thursday. No other decisions have been made by major conferences.
“We’ve been advised to go slow and constantly re-evaluate what we’re doing and move ahead as long as scientists and medical personnel are telling us it’s safe to do,” Bowlsby told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.
Oklahoma is currently set to begin their season on September 5 against Missouri State. If the Big 12 chooses to follow the Big Ten’s footsteps, the Sooners will miss out on matchups with MSU, Tennessee on September 12 and Army on September 26.
Oklahoma is currently exploring alternatives such as moving the start date of the Missouri State game up one week to allow for time in between games.
The Big 12 Conference will likely make an announcement in the coming days for a conference only football schedule.
The latest breaking news on the college football front revolves around going to a conference only schedule this fall. The Big Ten Conference has already made their announcement. With 14 teams, they could fill out their non-conference schedule with their remaining teams.
The Big Ten will play only conference games this football season, multiple people with knowledge of the decision confirmed to the USA TODAY Network Thursday.
The people requested anonymity because the move had not yet been announced by the league office. That is expected to come along with further details later Thursday. The Athletic was the first to report the Big Ten’s decision, which comes as coronavirus cases are surging in Texas and the Southeast.
Following that announcement, Brett McMurphy of Stadium reported that the ACC would follow. They would also help out Notre Dame with as many games as needed.
ACC football also expected to play conference-only games, sources told @Stadium. Last month, ACC commish John Swofford told @Stadium if Power 5 schools played conference-only schedules that ACC would assist Notre Dame with as many games as it needed
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 9, 2020
The domino effect of news continued with the PAC12 Conference getting into the act according to Bryan Fischer of College Football Talk.
Source says Pac-12 is likely to follow the Big Ten’s lead in the coming days on a conference-only slate this fall.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) July 9, 2020
The remaining two power five conference are likely to follow as they won’t have a choice with the conferences announcing a conference only schedule. For Texas it would eliminate the LSU matchup in Baton Rouge should the SEC follow suit.
Provided the Big 12 makes the same announcement in the coming days, it begs the question of how they might fill out their remaining schedule or would they stick to the already planned schedule.
Related: What a conference only spring schedule might look like
If the Big 12 wanted to play a full slate of 12 games, then some of the matchups would take place twice. Could we see two Red River Rivalry games? One could be in Austin and one in Norman. Or would they go with other matchups? Tough to make a call at this point but it is worth watching as it all unfolds in the coming days.
With positive cases and hospitalizations of COVID-19 spiking in the last few weeks, college football is back on alert for the fall.
With positive cases and hospitalizations of COVID-19 appearing in the last few weeks, college football has once again been put on alert for the fall.
Kansas State and Houston have shut down voluntary workouts already. The University of Arizona has shut down its campus with the spike of cases in Arizona. Texas has pulled back on its reopening process and many states in the northeast have mandated a travel quarantine for people coming in from areas with a rise in cases.
The academic year does have two semesters and eligibility is a year-by-year basis, which means a college football season can theoretically happen in the spring. It’s something Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley would be open for.
“It’s very doable,” he told Yahoo Sports. “This can happen. We’ve been a part of putting together models of what that would potentially look like. This season is going to be different, we might as well come to terms with that. If we do decide that the spring is the best option, if we get to that point, we shouldn’t be scared of it. It’s very doable.”
The spring season, according to Riley, would consist of a shorter schedule and some top NFL Draft prospects opting out of playing. Although a decision on this is a ways away, both Riley and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby acknowledged to Yahoo Sports that the thought is becoming more real.
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said in early June that Oklahoma’s 2020 schedule remains intact. The schedule includes a road game at Army in New York.
The Sooners are scheduled to begin the 2020 season on Sept. 5 against Missouri State at home.
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The Big 12 Conference continues its forward-thinking during the coronavirus pandemic. This time with the conference championship game.
The Big 12 Conference continues to be at the forefront of forward-thinking during the coronavirus pandemic.
Commissioner Bob Bowlsby was the first to float an idea of a fall and spring college football season in order to miss the normal flu season in the winter. The Big 12 conference was one of the first to shutdown athletic activities and then the longest to open things back up in order to obtain as much information as possible.
Now? The athletic directors of the Big 12 are contemplating a move to move back the football conference championship game from Dec. 5 to Dec. 12 in order to leave the Dec. 5 weekend free for any makeup games that get canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak amongst a team. This was reported by the Dallas Morning News.
“I think trying to build in flexibility makes sense. That’s not the decision we’ll make this kind of year,” Bowlsby, who isn’t a part of these discussions but confirmed they are happening, told DMN. “I hope the season is orderly enough that those kinds of options can be viable. I suspect that we won’t have that luxury.”
Oklahoma has played in the first three Big 12 Championship games since it was revived in 2017. The game takes place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
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