Big 12 leaders' decision came down to ramifications of not playing vs. uncertain risks of playing a seasonGETTY IMAGES
The Big 12’s decision last night to "trudge onward" with a '20 fall football season has "kept alive the hope, maybe faint, that there will be college pigskin action in autumn," according to Ross Dellenger of SI.com. Before their presidents agreed to continue the season, Big 12 ADs "got briefed for 90 minutes by a medical panel, which led to vigorous debate." Some "thought it too unsafe." Others "thought it safe enough." It was a "back-and-forth between administrators, all the while with the season somewhat on the line." The decision among Big 12 leaders "came down to ramifications of not playing a season vs. uncertain risks of playing a season." League sources said that the conference also decided to "add an extra layer to their COVID-19 protocols, requiring more intensive, mandatory heart imaging tests -- a decision rooted in virus-related cardiac issues." Dellenger: "But let’s not celebrate too much so quickly. Maybe this is only delaying the inevitable." For now, though, the Big 12 "saved the sport, slowing a domino effect that could have further crippled the industry." The ACC, "for now on board with the SEC’s pandemic-playing attitude, would have leapt from this moving train if the Big 12 shut it down." With the ACC gone, the SEC "would be left on an island with a smattering of Group of Five teams -- an attempt that surely would have flopped eventually" (SI.com, 8/12).
DECIDING TO PLAY JUST STEP ONE: THE ATHLETIC's Max Olson writes there remains a "treacherous road ahead for the Big 12 and its peers." Concerns about "students returning to campus, testing capacity and the long-term health effects of COVID-19 aren’t going away and were daunting enough to convince two Power 5 leagues to postpone play until the spring." The Big 12 took the "totally dissonant step of finalizing a playing schedule that starts just over one month from now." The conference is "expected to release its revised slate" today. Olson: "The league's leadership hasn’t been definitively convinced they should not play." Big 12 administrators "do understand, though, they’ll have to answer for the decisions made by the Big Ten and Pac-12 and make a clear case for why they believe they can carefully pull off a fall football season while still prioritizing the health and safety of their players" (THEATHLETIC.com, 8/12). In Houston, Nick Moyle writes the Big 12 "isn’t the final Power Five league standing, though it might be the most important" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/12).
BIG LOSSES IN MORGANTOWN: In West Virginia, Greg Hunter notes WVU athletics is "going to take a huge financial hit this fiscal year, even if it is able to play all 10 games in its altered football schedule." WVU AD Shane Lyons said that fewer games will "increase the deficit, and a complete cancellation of both the football and basketball seasons would cost WVU in the neighborhood of $65 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year." Lyons: "There’s no ignoring the fact that the issues we’re facing financially are huge; it’s catastrophic" (BLUEGOLDNEWS.com, 8/12).
