The Big 12 will continue moving forward with the intent on playing fall football, multiple sources told ESPN on Tuesday, confirming a Yahoo Sports report.
The conference’s board of directors met for more than an hour on Tuesday to discuss the future of the season in the midst of the Big Ten and Pac-12 decisions to postpone fall sports until 2021.
Much attention was on the Big 12 meeting after the ACC and SEC publicly affirmed their intention to continue moving forward.
The decision now leaves three of the Power 5 conferences intent on playing for now.
The Big 12 athletic directors are set to meet late Tuesday.
“Getting closer,” TCU coach Gary Patterson told ESPN.
A revised Big 12 schedule is expected to be released soon, sources told ESPN. The teams will still play their “9-plus-1” schedule setup, with nine conference games and one nonconference game, but will delay the start of the season until Sept. 26, multiple sources told ESPN.
The news comes on the heels of the league reportedly being split on the decision of whether to play. Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades said earlier Tuesday that if the league voted, he expected it to be “really, really close.”
The Sun Belt Conference is expected to follow the Big 12, SEC and ACC’s lead, according to sources, and there are also indications that Conference USA (minus Old Dominion) and possibly the American Athletic Conference will try to give it a go this fall, along with independents Army, BYU and Liberty. It is unclear what independent New Mexico State intends to do.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Mark Schlabach, Chris Low and Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.