DALLAS (NEXSTAR) — The college football season lost two key conferences Tuesday as the Big Ten and Pac-12 called off their fall football seasons over concerns of COVID-19.
With no centralized leadership over college football, each conference can make its own decision about whether to move forward.
As of Tuesday evening, here’s what each of the Power Five conferences says about playing football in 2020:
Not Playing: Big Ten
The Big Ten’s announcement, that it was postponing all fall sports and hoping to make them up in the second semester, came first Tuesday afternoon.
The announcement was made six days after the conference – that includes historic programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State – released a revised conference-only football schedule that it hoped would help it navigate a fall season with potential COVID-19 disruptions.
Not Playing: Pac-12
An hour later the Pac-12, the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl partner, called a news conference to say that all sports in its conference would be paused until Jan. 1, including basketball.
“This was an extremely difficult and painful decision that we know will have important impacts on our student-athletes, coaches, administrators and our fans,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. “We know nothing will ease that.
Playing: Atlantic Coast Conference
As of now, the ACC plans to forge ahead with fall football. Following the Big Ten and Pac-12 announcements, the conference said it will “continue to make decisions based on medical advice, inclusive of our Medical Advisory Group, local and state health guidelines, and do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our universities’ academic missions.”
The conference noted they’ll stay flexible and make adjustments as “medical information and the landscape evolves.”
Playing: Big 12
Though no formal announcement was made by press time Tuesday afternoon, The Associated Press says the Big 12 plans to play football in the fall.
Playing: Southeastern Conference
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey indicated the SEC will move ahead, saying he looks forward to “learning more about the factors that led the Big 12 and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today.”
“I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes,” Sankey said. “We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return in sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes everyday.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
