Texas Football: Big 12 commish Bob Bowlsby has doubts about Red River Rivalry

The Red River Rivalry game between Texas football and the Oklahoma Sooners could run into problems according to Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

The status of the 2020 college football season remains up in the air at the moment. Will it be pushed back, start on time, or be cancelled entirely? Those are the questions that not just fans, players, coaches, etc. associated with the Texas football program want to know, but pretty much everyone involved in some regard around the college football landscape.

Decisions made by the Big 12, and namely conference commissioner Bob Bowlsy, will play a huge role as to what happens for the Texas Longhorns football program this coming season. In just under 30 minutes on an XM Radio show earlier this week, Bowlsby opened up on his thoughts and initial plans for the 2020 college football season (written out on ESPN).

He mentioned in this interview that he thinks the novel coronavirus could come “roaring back” this fall when the college football season is supposed to be heating up. There was also an interesting take that he had more specifically on the Red River Rivalry game between the Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners that is annually held at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas.

Here’s what Bowlsby had to say on the matter on this radio show earlier this week.

"“When you think about a petri dish for spreading infection can you think of one that’s better than the State Fair of Texas?” Bowlsby said. “I mean, people are jammed in there and they’re enthusiastic and it’s about a perfect place to transmit any kind of an infection.“In this new normal … how do you have that at the Cotton Bowl when you’ve got to walk through 300,000 people gathered out in the outer reaches? It’s those kinds of things that we’re going to have think ourselves through.”"

Bowlsby specifically emphasized the need for “multiple contingencies” just in case something were to go wrong. There are a number of alternative options for safer ways to hold the coming college football season that are being discussed around the media and with administrations at the moment.

Here was a more detailed example that Bowlsby pointed out that could happen in the coming season in the Big 12.

"“As an example, say somebody at TCU tests positive for the virus and it’s somebody that works regularly with the football team,” Bowlsby said. “West Virginia is scheduled to come in on Saturday and play against them. If West Virginia calls and says they’re not coming because we don’t wanna expose our kids, do they forfeit? Does TCU forfeit? Is it considered no game?“What happens if we say we’re going to play a nine-game conference schedule and only get seven games in? What happens if some that get eight games and some that only get six games? How do you decide your champion? The number of variables is virtually almost limitless. But those are the kinds of things that we’re working our way through.”"

The Longhorns play in a massive stadium and a big city. There are concerns about what could potentially happen if they played the 2020 season without having any contingency plan in place. This is a well known fact by now.

Texas was set to open up their regular season slate on Sep. 5 against the South Florida Bulls at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The biggest game of their non-conference schedule is slated for Week 2, when they travel to Baton Rouge on Sep. 12 to face the defending National Champion LSU Tigers.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is playing a part of everyday life and is now well intertwined in the planning of the 2020 Longhorns football season.