From The Tribune staff reports
The Big 12 Conference will move forward with fall sports this year, officials announced Wednesday. According to officials, athletes in high-contact sports including football will get three COVID-19 tests per week.
The conference’s board of directors met on Tuesday morning to discuss the future of the fast-approaching season in the midst of decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 to cancel fall sports.
“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,” Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement. “We believe all of this combines to create an ideal learning and training situation during this time of COVID-19.”
“Ultimately, our student-athletes have indicated their desire to compete in the sports they love this season and it is up to all of us to deliver a safe, medically sound, and structured academic and athletic environment for accomplishing that outcome,” he continued.
The Big 12 also released a revised football schedule that includes 10 total games, with nine conference games and one nonconference game. Season openers have been delayed until Sept. 26, the same mark recently set by the SEC.
The conference schedules also include two bye weeks for every team, allowing for flexibility in the occasion that games must be postponed. The Big 12 championship game has been scheduled for either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19.