A few weeks ago, when the Big Ten announced it was scaling football back to a conference-only affair in an announcement saturated with uncertainty, it appeared college football was done for the 2020 calendar year. Now, we’re not so sure. The rumor had been that we’d know by the end of July, but rather than seeing mass cancelations this week, we saw the SEC, ACC, and Pac-12 come out with either scheduling roadmaps or a concrete schedule. Yes, games and travel were reduced, but these were not cancelation announcements—they were more confident than at least I expected they’d be as of mid-July. And the word out of the Big 12 is that the question at this point is whether to make the season ten or twelve games, while Oklahoma’s opened camp after moving their season opener against Missouri State up to August 29th—four weeks from today.
We still don’t know, and the Big Ten still appears to be the most cautious of the Power Five, reportedly telling schools this week that football still might not happen this semester. But with the introduction of new, full schedules for some teams, and with four of the five major conferences at least putting on a confident public face, it’s looking more possible that there will be a split within FBS football as far as season timing goes.
We’ll see where it all lands. The news, if it comes, should be speeding up now that August is upon us.
