MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Big 12 Conference could be the swing vote with the 2020 college football season hanging in the balance. Multiple published reports indicated late Tuesday evening that the Big 12 is, for now, proceeding with plans to go forward with the 2020 season.
Sources telling SoonerScoop’s @CareyAMurdock and @Eddie_Rado Big 12 presidents will allow conference to move forward toward a season and a revised Big 12 schedule will be released after approval from AD’s during tonight’s meetings.
— SoonerScoop.com (@SoonerScoop) August 12, 2020
Announcements came within about an hour of each other on Tuesday afternoon that both the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference were cancelling all fall sports for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Big Ten Statement on 2020-21 Fall Seasonhttps://t.co/BCiRSzeAPL
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) August 11, 2020
Update on the 2020-21 Pac-12 season below.https://t.co/G6VxDO2VM2
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) August 11, 2020
Big 12 officials were meeting Tuesday evening to go over information from medical experts. It is not yet known whether the league plans to make a final decision on the 2020 season during the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference gave indications that they plan to proceed with the 2020 football season.
Statement from the ACC: pic.twitter.com/9lBY5h8jNy
— The ACC (@theACC) August 11, 2020
Statement from @SEC Commissioner @GregSankey pic.twitter.com/8nyweGPBk1
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) August 11, 2020
Four of the ten FBS football conferences will not compete this fall, possibly moving forward with plans for a spring season. On Saturday, the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to scrap plans for all fall sports. The Mountain West Conference made a similar announcement on Monday.
At the ‘Group of 5’ level, the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference are planning to play full football schedules this fall.
West Virginia remains scheduled to host Eastern Kentucky in their season opener and lone non-conference game on September 12. But it is likely that FCS football will not be played this fall due to multiple conferences announcing they will not compete.