No decision has been made yet regarding the Big 12's football seasonGETTY IMAGES
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that there is "no immediate movement" for the Big 12 to "shut down the 2020 fall football season," according to Randy Peterson of the DES MOINES REGISTER. Bowlsby said, "I've literally been on dozens of calls with doctors and scientists, and no one has told us to stop. We'll keep trying to move ahead, although it would be less than forthright to sit here and not add that the last 30 days has not gone the way we like." On how the MAC's decision to cancel its '20 fall football season could impact the Big 12 ADs and presidents meeting tomorrow, Bowlsby said, "It's something we're aware of." Bowlsby on what the conference would need to see or hear before making its decision said, "I don't know that we need to see anything. We just need to listen to our doctors and scientists. In the end, we're going to do what's best for our league" (DES MOINES REGISTER, 8/10). In Austin, Kirk Bohls notes Power Five commissioners "met for about an hour" yesterday in a regularly scheduled session, "not an emergency session as was portrayed in several social media corners." The commissioners "talk weekly and have since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March." Bowlsby said, "There's never been a drop-dead date. It's always been situational. The virus decides what we do" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8/10).
SEC MOVING FORWARD? In Birmingham, John Talty cites sources as saying that the SEC "isn't moving toward canceling its fall football season." The conference, which unveiled its 10-game schedule on Friday, "prefers to take a wait-and-see approach." The SEC "purposefully pushed back its fall camp start to Aug. 17 and season opener to Sept. 26 to monitor how the other sports, including the NBA and MLB, were handling playing games amid the COVID-19 pandemic." That "hasn't changed." If "only the Big Ten moves to spring, there's no reason why the SEC couldn't continue on its plan." It gets "considerably trickier if the Pac-12 and/or Big 12 join in with the Big Ten." There was "no confidence around the SEC Sunday night that it'd be willing to be on an island and play fall college football by itself if the other four Power 5 conferences moved to the spring" (AL.com, 8/10).
TIDE KEEPS ROLLING: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Laine Higgins wrote Alabama is “still in game-on mode for fall.” The reason: it thinks its campus is the “safest place for athletes at the moment, not the riskiest.” Alabama AD Greg Byrne said, “It’s been interesting, the narrative from some that feels that maybe we should not be competing or training. What I can tell you is we are doing everything we can to support our student athletes right now” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/8).
