Big 12 Commissioner: College Football Playoff Could Be Postponed Due to COVID-19

The College Football Playoff and the New Year's Six bowl games could be in jeopardy.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Sirius XM Thursday that there have been discussions about moving back the playoff and the New Year's Six bowls due to COVID-19.

"I am on the CFP operations committee and we spent some time talking about that," Bowlsby said. "We have not come to any closure on it, but there is some latitude to postpone it if that need should arise.

"The same is true with some of the New Year's Six games. I don't know if I see us playing a championship game in February, but you just never know. These are unusual times and things that might not otherwise be acceptable have to be considered in this kind of circumstance."

A total of 57 games have been canceled or postponed for the 2020 college football season with 10 games alone postponed so far this week. Rice-Louisiana Tech matchup as well as the Pittsburgh-Georgia Tech game both were postponed Thursday.

Four games in the Southeastern Athletic Conference were canceled Tuesday due to COVID-19. Other than Auburn, which has 13 positive cases, no SEC team involved in a postponed game has more than four positives on its team, reported Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger on Wednesday. Missouri has two positives, Texas A&M has three, Mississippi State has less than five and LSU is thought to have no more than four. In the Big Ten, the Ohio State-Maryland game was canceled due to an elevated number of COVID-19 cases within Maryland's program. 

Five ranked teams, including three in the AP top five, have had their games postponed this week.

As of right now, the four teams selected to the 2020-21 College Football Playoff will be announced Dec. 20.

The College Football Playoff semifinals are scheduled for Jan. 1, 2021, at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, with the national championship game slated for Jan. 11 in Miami.