Big 12 Suspends All Athletic Competition for the Rest of the School Year
STILLWATER -- The huge bombs of news just keep on coming and the Big 12 Conference delivered a massive salvo on Friday afternoon. My thought is it should have been expected, but the initial wait until March 29 and then we will re-evaluate stance became much more by 6 p.m. late Friday afternoon. No more competition for Big 12 schools, either in conference or out of conference the rest of the school year.
Due to the on-going developments related to COVID-19 the Big 12 Conference announces tha conference and non-conference competitions are cancelled through the end of the academic year.
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 13, 2020
➡️ https://t.co/HMW72DXg0U.
Due to the on-going developments related to COVID-19 the Big 12 Conference announces that all organized team activities whether organized or voluntary, including team and individual practices, meetings, and other organized gatherings, have been suspended until March 29 and will be re-evaluated at that time. In addition, all conference and non-conference competitions are cancelled through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year.
That leaves the only possible activities for athletes and their coaches this spring as practices. There was some hold out for potential competitions, even exhibitions.
"I was hoping that we might be able to do something," one head coach told Pokes Report. "I know that as long as it wouldn't impact eligibility that are players would want to do that. They are athletes and performing is what they do. I also know that are fans love to watch out athletes perform. It is where they go and time kind of stops and they get away from everything. This is really a disappointment."
What this does is make the whole situation completely clear. Whether it is true or not, the sources feeding college athletic conferences like the Big 12 see this as a threat that is much more likely to get worse before it improves.
One source told me that during the athletic director's teleconference where this was decided that Iowa State's Jamie Pollard, a member of the NCAA basketball selection committee told the others how things were different regarding the COVID 19 back east and other locations versus the college campuses. Pollard had been privy to more information that was fed to the committee through the NCAA. Some schools in the Big 12, primarily Texas had let their athletes leave campus with all their students. Texas shut down their campus. That also swayed the vote.
Not to be an alarmist, but you have to wonder what next? In college sports, next would be an impact to next school year and the richest season of all in college sports, football season.
One administrator told me that football is a long way off. "It is a long way until then and there are a lot of things that would have to happen for football to be threatened."
