Multiple Power Five Conferences Consider Pushing Back Football Title Games

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Multiple Power Five conference commissioners are currently considering moving the championship football games for their respective conferences “to allow space for potential makeup games to be played if there are in-season cancellations due to COVID-19,” according to The Athletic.

In addition the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences, the Big 10 is reportedly looking at the possibility of moving the football title game.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott have been vocal on the potential shift in the college football schedule in recent days.

“I think trying to build in flexibility makes sense. That’s not the decision we’ll make this kind of year,” Bowlsby told The Dallas Morning News. “I hope the season is orderly enough that those kinds of options can be viable. I suspect that we won’t have that luxury.”

“While our goal is to play a complete football season on the schedule originally set forth, we have a comprehensive football contingency scheduling plan that allows for maximum flexibility depending on changes necessitated by COVID-19 for health and safety reasons,” Scott told The Athletic. “This planning does include for the possibility of moving our Pac-12 Football Championship Game back later in December.”

Couple of interesting nuggets here, too … 1) the College Football Playoff might require a minimum # of games played to make semifinals or NY6 bowl, and 2) “no contest” vs forfeits will be an important distinction: https://t.co/zrOT1LkVDn

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) June 26, 2020

Currently, the Pac-12 title game is scheduled for Friday, December 4. The Big 12 and Big 10 championships are scheduled a day later on Saturday, December 5.

“It’s got a lot of moving parts,” Bowlsby continued, “But we’re at the point where we’re weighing options.”

On Friday, June 26, South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner published a message about the Gamecocks’ outlook on the upcoming season.

South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner publishes a letter on behalf of #Gamecocks athletics

"A return to normal will not happen this fall … At this point, we do not know what the 2020 football season will look like."https://t.co/s3zFhonkn2 pic.twitter.com/ztrSoE4HvB

— TheBigSpur.com (@TheBigSpur247) June 26, 2020

“At this point, we do not know what the 2020 football season will look like. Our goal is to communicate the plan for the season in early August,” the SEC school AD said. “We want to be able to gather as much information as possible, working with the SEC office and the member institutions before any decisions are made.”