Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby Discusses Decision and Upcoming Season
STILLWATER – It’s been a whirlwind of a 24 hours for college athletics. The Big 12 and Pac 12 officially announced the cancellation of the 2020 football season, with the Pac 12 canceling all fall sports. A few hours later, news broke of the Big 12’s intentions of moving forward with the football season.
“We don’t ever characterize the discussion or the votes in the room, but we feel very good about the vote and about the sense of the meeting and the progressions of the decision that we got,” said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. “It’s easy to say that the board is comfortable with where we are.”
Bowlsby also addressed the rumors of schools from other conferences, such as the Big Ten, potentially joining the Big 12 for one season this fall. He responded very quickly that the Big 12 has not heard from any Big Ten schools.
The Big 12 also officially announced Wednesday morning that fall sports, including football, will be moving forward. The Big 12 also released the official fall schedule which you can read here.
There’s no doubt there will be ups and downs throughout the fall. Schools will be required to test athletes multiple times per week and will need to keep up strict requirements to keep them safe.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with the media via teleconference Wednesday morning to discuss the release, how the Big 12 Board of Directors came to its decision and how they will be moving forward.
“We know that there can be complications with this virus, so positive (cases) have to be dealt with very carefully and follow up and return to play has to be carefully managed and appropriately diagnosed. I think what we’ve heard from our student-athletes is they’d like to play, but they want to make sure it’s safe. They want to know what the eligibility implications are and they want to know that their financial aid is secure. We have made every attempt to answer those things; some are still in progress as a result of NCAA council considerations, but generally speaking, I think we’ve been able to make progress and provide information and I feel very good about where we are at the present time.”
The Big 12 spoke to at least two players from each football team in the conference and Pokes Report has learned there were three players from the Oklahoma State roster: Tylan Wallace, Dillon Stoner and Malcolm Rodriguez.
Commissioner Bowlsby said the conference is still working on the details of eligibility and financial aid for the athletes should they decide to opt out.
As per the Big 12 release on fall sports, testing for high contact sport athletes, such as football, volleyball and soccer, will be tested three times a week. ‘Additionally, return to play protocols after positive occurrences will include an EKG, troponin blood test, echocardiogram and cardiac MRI.’
“The [Big 12] Board heard from doctors that have comprised our conference medical committee and have advised us over the past months and weeks,” said commissioner Bowlsby. “We have also assembled on a weekly basis a representative group of doctors, researchers and scientists from each of the [Power] Five conferences, two people from each league, really a star-studded group of some of the foremost experts in this area in infectious diseases in the entire world.
“So, we feel like we have gotten good advice. Last evening, we had a team from the University of Kansas that was very helpful in helping the board. We also had a representative from the Mayo Clinic that works in genetic cardiology that provided some very helpful information. Obviously, the conversations we have with student athletes are always very helpful and provide insights that we definitely need.”
The medical outlook moving forward will obviously dictate if and how the season proceeds, but it seems pretty clear the conference is doing what it can to keep the coaches and athletes safe.
“I feel good about the decision going forward, I believe our board feels good about it and I think most importantly, we’d have some clarity for our coaches and student-athletes,” said commissioner Bowlsby. “There’s a difference between clarity and certainty; I don’t think we have certainty in this environment, but we have been able to get some clarity.”
Commissioner Bowlsby also addressed should things start to go south on the Big 12 over the course of the next few months, what the course of action would be.
“We feel as well prepared as we can be at this time to move forward,” said commissioner Bowlsby. “We plan to do what we have always done; we’ve been doing it since April and that is on the advice of doctors moving forward slowly, constantly reevaluating what we’re doing, making small corrections and looking for challenges that we, in one way or another, can beat. We have been able to put one foot forward and follow it with another and we’ve got to this point. I personally wanted to see us get to this point in August so that we could have a look at what preseason camp looked like and to see what we might’ve learned to do as we went along. Frankly, we’ve found that what we thought was golden 60 days ago is garbage today. It’s an ever-evolving environment and we will find ourselves with bumpy spots during the fall, there’s no doubt about that, but I think we’re very well prepared to deal with those things.”
