The ACC Continues to Move Forward Towards College Football This Fall
The college football landscape for the upcoming fall season shifted substantially on Tuesday afternoon, as the Big Ten and PAC-12 both elected to cancel the season for their respective conferences.
Soon after the announcements by both conferences, the ACC released a formal statement, echoing its intent to stay the course in an effort to play football this fall.
The ACC explained in its message that the conference will continue to listen to the advice of the conference's medical advisory group in regard to whether or not it is safe enough for the season to take place.
In other words, the ACC is staying the course and planning to play until they have medical information that lends credence to the contrary.
This means that Virginia Tech, and the other 14 ACC schools (including Notre Dame) will continue fall camp in hopes of kicking things off in the second week of September.
The ACC was not the only conference to stick to its guns in an attempt to play football this fall. The SEC released an official statement on Tuesday afternoon as well, requesting specific reasons from Big Ten and PAC-12 officials that led to the sudden heel turn to shut the season down.
Through early Tuesday evening, the only conference in the Power Five that had yet to release a statement one way or another was the Big 12. The Big 12 has been seen as a fulcrum in this mess, as the league has the bandwidth to potentially take on member schools of the Big Ten and PAC-12 if there were teams within those conferences who still wanted to play this fall. Think about a school like Nebraska from the Big Ten, who has gone on the record saying they still want to try to find a way to play.
Around 8:30 ET, news broke across social media that the Big 12 was planning to play, and would release an updated schedule in the near future.
Nebraska now has a potential option if they pull the trigger on playing football and temporarily leave the Big Ten for one season to do so. Now comes the time to see if the Big 12 is receptive to adding their former member back into the conference for the fall.
To update the Power Five scoreboard at home:
Big 12, ACC, and SEC are in.
The PAC-12 and Big Ten are out.
The updated scheduling for the fall football season is far from over, but finally after a wild Tuesday news cycle, there is some degree of clarity for football this fall.
