On Wednesday, the Big-12 announced its intention to go forward with football in the fall after a board of governors meeting on Tuesday. This comes during a week where several other schools and major conferences have announced that they will not go forward with their seasons. “Our student-athletes want to compete, and it is the board’s collective opinion that sports can be conducted safely and in concert with the best interests of their well-being,” Big 12 board of directors said in a statement. “We remain vigilant in monitoring the trends and effects of COVID-19 as we learn more about the virus. If at any point our scientists and doctors conclude that our institutions cannot provide a safe and appropriate environment for our participants, we will change course.”
While there have been these cancellations, which seems like the logical thing to do, there was a group of college football players, spearheaded by Clemson star-quarterback Trevor Lawrence who took to Twitter to express their desire to play. This also comes after two other major conferences, the ACC and SEC, announcing their intentions to play. Along with their announcement, the BIG 12 released a fall game schedule.
“The virus continues to evolve and medical professionals are learning more with each passing week,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement. “Opinions vary regarding the best path forward, as we’ve seen throughout higher education and our society overall, but we are comfortable in our institutions’ ability to provide a structured training environment, rigorous testing and surveillance, hospital quality sanitation and mitigation practices that optimize the health and safety of our student-athletes. We believe all of this combines to create an ideal learning and training situation during this time of COVID-19.”
