Reports: Big 12 lays framework for handling any football team outbreaks

By Benton Smith Sep 1, 2020

Nick Krug

Baylor Bears linebacker Blake Lynch (2) picks off a pass intended for Kansas wide receiver Andrew Parchment (4) during the third quarter on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019 at Memorial Stadium.

The Big 12 reportedly has a plan ready in case one (or more) of its teams loses available players to COVID-19 quarantine during the upcoming season.

As first reported by Sports Illustrated and later confirmed by Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard to 247 Sports and other outlets, the Big 12 will require a team dealing with positive virus tests to enter a game with at least a 53-man roster. But there’s more to it than finding 53 able bodies.

There will be a minimum number of non-quarantined players a team must have at each position, too.

Although the Big 12 has not yet laid out publicly the specifics, SI reported the plan may require, for example, a team has one quarterback, six offensive linemen, six defensive linemen, two or three receivers, etc.

Pollard confirmed during a media conference that the Big 12 will use a 53-man roster “built on a set number of positions.” The ISU AD also said an antigen test that players get the day before a game will determine who is cleared to play.

If a team dealing with a COVID outbreak meets the minimums the Big 12 agreed upon, “you have to play,” as Pollard put it.

“If you’re less than that 53, then you can have a no-contest,” Pollard said. “And the first step would be to try and reschedule during one of the bye dates. But if not, it doesn’t technically count against the team that ends up with the no contest. But it was a uniform policy that we wanted to adopt to, in essence, take some gamesmanship out of what could happen potentially later in the year.”

As the Big 12 forged ahead with playing this fall when the Big Ten, Pac-12 and other smaller conferences opted to postpone football until later in the academic year, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was open about the fact that the conference’s decision-makers expect the novel coronavirus crisis to impact the league’s plan to play 10 games. Bowlsby said football players will be tested for the virus three times a week.

SI reported that the Big 12 office will determine whether a given team dealing with COVID is eligible to play.

The conference formatted its shortened schedule for 2020 with extra bye weeks for potentially rescheduling games that get nixed because of the virus.

Nationally, teams such as Oklahoma and LSU during the preseason have dealt with positive COVID cases, forcing a number of players to miss practices. North Carolina State rescheduled its Sept. 12 season opener versus Virginia Tech due to a COVID-19 outbreak.