Report: Big 12 Moving Forward With Fall Season
STILLWATER – A few hours after the Big Ten and Pac 12 announced the cancellation of their 2020 college football seasons, the Big 12 may be the saving grace for college football.
According to a report from SoonerScoop.com, the Big 12 presidents are allowing the conference to move forward with the fall season and will be releasing an AD approved revised Big 12 schedule following Tuesday’s Board of Directors meeting.
Obviously, there's a lot that could happen between now and the start of the season, but this is huge news for college football.
Pokes Report was working on the report simultaneously and was still looking for a few sources to feel more confident about reporting it. Robert Allen has spoken with people at Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State and Texas and all were saying the season was moving forward.
It looks like we’re going to get to watch the dynamic offensive trio of Chuba Hubbard, Spencer Sanders and Tylan Wallace, as well as what could be the best defensive unit we’ve seen in quite some time show what they’re all about on Saturday’s this fall.
As mentioned in the opening sentence, the Big 12 just might be the saving grace for college football as many people around the country believed the Big 12 was the ‘swing vote’ to having a season. Reports have been coming out over the past 24 hours about the ACC and SEC deciding to move forward with the 2020 season if they could get the Big 12 to join them.
Both the ACC and SEC released statements via social media on Tuesday about moving forward.
It's also possible with the cancellation of the Big Ten season we could see a few of its teams trying to find spots in participating conference to play football this fall, with Nebraska being one of the schools.
The Big Ten and Pac 12 announced earlier on Tuesday afternoon they were going to be postponing the 2020 season, with the Pac 12 postponing all fall sports, in hopes of moving the football season to the spring of 2021. The major concern for both the Big Ten and Pac 12 is players developing Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that affects the heart’s electrical system, reducing its ability to pump properly and cause rapid or abnormal heart rhythms.
Pokes Report does know that Oklahoma State has several players, mainly linemen, that have been doing light work and waiting to pass their physicals to begin full practice.
Now, Dr. Cameron Wolfe of Duke, who is the chairperson of the ACC Medical Advisory Group, has advised the ACC that they should be able to play a football season. This coming in the last 24 hours.
"We believe we can mitigate it down to a level that makes everyone safe," Wolfe told The Sports Business Daily. "Can we safely have two teams meet on the field? I would say yes. Will it be tough? Yes. Will it be expensive and hard and lots of work? For sure. But I do believe you can sufficiently mitigate the risk of bringing COVID onto the football field or into the training room at a level that's no different than living as a student on campus."
Interestingly enough, it is two other Duke doctors that are consulting the NFL and the Big 12 on the COVID-19 issues and whether they can stage competitive events.
The NFL, NFL Players Association and Big 12 have turned to Infection Control Education for Major Sports, or ICS,an independent organization run by two Duke University infectious-disease doctors, Deverick Anderson and Christopher Hostler.
We’ll update this article once an official report from the Big 12 is released.
