The Big 12 Conference is moving forward with its fall football season, joining the ACC and SEC. That news comes the same day the Big Ten and Pac-12 canceled their fall seasons amid the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
ESPN reports that the Big 12 will “continue moving forward with the intent of playing fall football,” citing multiple sources. The Big 12’s leadership met Tuesday night, hours after both the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced the cancellation of their fall seasons. Both of those Power-5 conferences hope to play fall sports in the spring, provided the coronavirus pandemic improves by then.
The Pac-12 specifically postponed all sports to at least January 1. That includes swimming & diving, which typically trains and competes regularly in the fall. The Big 12’s decision to move forward, on the other hand, should allow its swimming teams to train and compete in some form this fall, though the conference hasn’t made any specific announcements about winter sports.
That leaves three of the five Power-5 conferences still planning to play football this fall: the Big 12, SEC, and ACC. The top division of college football (the FBS) is now roughly split between schools that have decided to cancel or postpone and schools that are planning to keep fall sports in the fall. College football, a major revenue driver for most schools, will likely have a major impact on all other college sports across the 2020-2021 season. We’ve already seen multiple Division I schools cut their swimming & diving programs for budgetary reasons this year.
Here’s a quick look at how that FBS division shakes out at the moment:
| Keeping Fall Sports In the Fall As of Now | Canceling/Postponing Fall Sports |
| Power-5 | |
| ACC | |
| Big Ten | |
| Big 12 | |
| Pac-12 | |
| SEC | |
| Group of Five | |
| AAC | |
| C-USA | |
| MAC | |
| MWC | |
| Sun Belt | |
| FBS Independents | |
| UConn | |
| UMass | |
| Notre Dame (w/ACC) | |
| BYU | |
| New Mexico State | |
| Liberty | |
| Army West Point | |
According to Stadium reporter Brett McMurphy, the current count has 53 of 130 FBS programs already opting to not play football in the fall.
Could decisions made by Pac-12 & Big Ten to cancel fall football season reduce the chances of any college football being played this fall? 53 of 130 FBS programs have opted not to play this fall – as of now https://t.co/yAFLzboi8s
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 11, 2020
Conferences and schools across the country have been making decisions this week on fall sports. Here’s a roundup of a few more late-breaking decisions we haven’t covered yet:
American Athletic Conference Will Move Forward With Fall Sports
The American Athletic Conference, known as the AAC or “The American” will move forward with its fall football season, per The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Athletic directors from AAC schools met on Monday night to discuss the matter.
Conference USA Meeting Wednesday, Plan Was To Play Fall Sports
Conference-USA or C-USA announced last Friday that they planned to move forward with fall sports. But The Denton Record-Chronicle reports that C-USA officials will meet again tonight to discuss further.
“A source with knowledge of ongoing discussions within C-USA does not expect its position to change following Friday’s announcement, but also acknowledged that the situation is fluid,” the Record-Chronicle reports.
C-USA member Old Dominion has already canceled fall sports, but the conference as a whole still plans to run fall sports, including football.
Summit League Postpones Fall Sports To Spring
Meanwhile outside of the FBS, Division I conference the Summit League has officially postponed its fall sports, which include men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball. The conference will plan to play those sports in the spring of 2021.
The postponement will only affect fall sports, and has no impact on winter or spring sports. Swimming & diving is a winter sport sponsored by the Summit League.
Here’s a list of the programs and conferences we’ve reported on so far that have canceled or postponed fall sports:
- Big Ten Conference – B1G – postponed all fall sports
- Pac-12 Conference – postponed all fall/winter sports to at least January 1
- Mountain West Conference – MWC – postponed all fall sports (Air Force exempt)
- Mid-American Conference – MAC – canceled fall sports
- UConn (FBS independent) – canceled fall football
- UMass (FBS independent) – canceled fall football
- Patriot League – canceled fall sports (Army & Navy exempt)
- Ivy League – canceled fall sports, no sports at all until at least January 1
- Summit League – postponed fall sports to spring
- UNC-W (CAA) – canceled fall sports
Are the cancelled schools allowing students to train?
That decision is being made on a school-by-school basis, and most have been tight-lipped so far about who they are and are not allowing on campus so far.
The day the AAC drops the football season is the day the world is truly on fire. Just about every school in the conference is all in financially on football and a school like ECU couldn’t get anymore in debut.
In 2 weels ACC will announce no football.
Well. Umass and Uconn probably saving money by cancelling football this yesr. Combined they were 3-21 last season.
Can you please stick with football-related news? The articles about age group and international swim meets are distracting.
😂
The South will fall again.
What does this even mean?
It means those conferences are made up of schools in mostly southern states and I’m not surprised they’re deciding to play, but am guessing they’ll regret it around November.
Ok, that clinched D1 Men’s NCAA for UT. CAL kids should be granted right to transfer to a competing school, as it’s doubtful PAC12 will have courage or money for compressed all sports Winter/Spring campaign. Very sad.
You are 100% positive nothing will change between now and spring?
No I am not. It could in fact get worse and perhaps permanent for certain conferences/sports/programs.
Very true Gator.
Pretty sure I heard somewhere the whole COVID thing would just “disappear” since it’s been “under control” for months.
Day 150 of 15 days to flatten the curve.
Just keep being a good sheep Ol Longhorn.
Can you please stick with swimming related news. No interest in other sports like football. Thanks
Freddy – fall sport cancellations likely will impact swimming. The Pac-12 for example, postponed all sports to January 1. That will affect the fall portion of the swimming season. On a broader scale, any change to college football is likely to have a big impact on college swimming due to its importance to college athletic department budgets in a year where we’ve already seen multiple Division I swim teams cut for budgetary reasons.
Freddy cannot see the big picture
Freddy lives in a bubble with his head in the sand.
I would say it’s a little closer to a portion of his posterior anatomy?
You don’t dictate what SwimSwam publishes….. back to your rocking chair grandpa and be thankful we have a plethora of articles to choose from and focus and comment on the articles you do enjoy.