Texas Football: Big 12 games shouldn’t be played without fans
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said on March 26 that the Texas football program, and the other nine teams, could be playing without fans in 2020.
There is a lot of speculation as to whether the novel coronavirus pandemic will have an extreme impact on the upcoming college football season, and to what severity it will be. But COVID-19 is sure to impact the Texas football program about just as much as any other blue blood around the country.
The Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby opened up on March 26 in a teleconference with limited media access, and announced some items that could have a big impact on the Texas Longhorns football program. Some of the measures that the Big 12 could take this fall for the 2020 college football season could be very drastic to deal with the COVID-19 spread.
In that teleconference with Bowlsby on March 26, he announced that there is a chance that some games could be played without fans.
Big 12 commish Bob Bowlsby said there is a chance football games could be played this fall w/out fans in stadium but "it’s hard to forecast those things"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) March 26, 2020
Not only is is really hard to imagine a Longhorns football game without any crowd at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, but it’s hard to fathom any Big 12 game without fans. That is potentially barring the Kansas Jayhawks since they’ve had the most trouble of any Big 12 with football attendance anyway.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said they will do a lot of monitoring the next 60 to 90 days to determine if there will be a delay to the football season
— Anwar Richardson (@AnwarRichardson) March 26, 2020
Bowlsby was reportedly quoted saying in his teleconference that “it’s hard to forecast those things”, referring to the likelihood that the Big 12 would have to take drastic measures in games this fall. He also said that they will be “monitoring the next 60 to 90 days to determine if there will be a delay to the football season”.
A popular opinion for a lot of college football fans and programs would have to be that just postponing the season would be a better option that playing games without any crowds.
Texas is set to open their 2020 regular season schedule on Sep. 5 at home at DKR against the South Florida Bulls out of the American Athletic Conference. Their Week 2 showdown is the biggest of the non-conference schedule, which comes on the road on Sep. 12 against the defending National Champion LSU Tigers.
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The Big 12 opener this fall for the Longhorns is supposed to come against the Kansas State Wildcats on the road in Manhattan on Oct. 3. The home conference opener is set for Oct. 17 against the West Virginia Mountaineers. That would come one week after the Red River Rivalry game at the original Cotton Bowl in Dallas against the Oklahoma Sooners.
For more information on COVID-19, you can visit the CDC’s website.