by Will Chamblee | Sports Writer
After deciding to move forward with the 2020 season, the Big 12 released a revised football schedule which will consist of nine conference games and one non-conference game for each of its teams.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement Wednesday morning that the board of directors feels confident in their decision to move forward with the season.
“We are comfortable in our institutions’ ability to provide a structured training environment, rigorous testing and surveillance, hospital quality sanitation and mitigation practices that optimize the health and safety of our student-athletes,” Bowlsby said.
While the location for each game will stay the same as in the previous schedule, the order of Baylor’s slate has changed. The Bears will now open their conference schedule against Kansas at home on Sept. 26th and then will play at West Virginia before hosting Oklahoma State. Baylor will then travel down to Austin for a matchup against Texas, return home for a Halloween battle against TCU and take off for road games at Iowa State and Texas Tech.
The Bears will then play Kansas State in their final home game before closing out Big 12 play in Norman, Okla., against the Oklahoma Sooners in what will ultimately be a rematch of last year’s conference championship.
The 2020 Big 12 Championship game will be played on either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 in Arlington. Bowlsby said the conference still plans to host the game at AT&T Stadium.
Baylor’s non-conference opponent is currently unknown, with the game being scheduled for Sept. 12. The Bears were originally scheduled to play Ole Miss, Incarnate Word and Louisiana Tech in non-conference play. Kansas, Texas, and Iowa State have also not announced their non-conference slate. All non-conference opponents will have to adhere to the Big 12’s COVID-19 testing protocol during the week preceding the game.
Head coach Dave Aranda was happy to finally get some clarity on the status of the 2020 college football season, saying that the energy devoted to “not knowing” can now be used elsewhere.
“What we’re looking at now is taking these next couple of days and having more of an OTA model of trying to get rest and recovery for our players, a little bit of rest and recovery for our coaches [and] the opportunity to game plan whoever is coming first, in our first game and then really kind of start up again with camp on Monday,” Aranda said.
