Big 12 commish Bob Bowlsby floats possibility of a split 2020 college football season

When it comes to ensuring that a 2020 college football season is played in full, this might be the most unique approach.

The upcoming college football season is scheduled to kick off Aug. 29 with seven games involving FBS schools, including Navy-Notre Dame in Dublin. Seemingly the only near-certainty amidst the coronavirus pandemic uncertainty is that, according to most observers, it is highly unlikely the new college football season will kick off as planned. Myriad ideas have been bandied about if/when the season doesn’t start on time. An October start. Or January. Or February, which seems to have garnered the most notoriety as being the most feasible.

Still, not all involved in the sport are inclined to write off the possibility of the season starting on time. Including Bob Bowlsby. The Big 12 commissioner, though, put a decidedly different twist on an on-time start in speaking to The Athletic‘s Seth Davis.

“I actually think we have a chance to start on time,” Bowlsby said last week. “Whether or not we can get the season done is another matter. When flu season starts again in November and December, you could see that ship sink in a hurry. One of the models we’re looking at is a split season where some games happen in the fall and some happen in the spring.”

Regardless of how the 2020 college football season ultimately looks, it’s been stated on numerous occasions that if there are no students on campus there will be no fall sports. Bowlsby’s SEC counterpart, Greg Sankey, argues there’s even nuance when it comes to a fully-functioning campus and bringing student-athletes back as part of a first wave of reopening universities.

From the same article:

The point is that there’s no reason to foreclose any possibilities, as appeared to happen during the call with Pence. Theoretically, as long as there is a basic level of functionality going on at the schools, sports can safely resume. “Our campuses need to be operational on a fundamental level,” Sankey said. “I’m not prophetic enough to know what that will look like. Think about how little we knew 30 days ago. That’s why we always want to be careful about how we describe the future. We want to be prepared for any imaginable contingency.

Once again, the article further buttresses the notion that the sport’s decision-makers, in concert with health-care professionals and various levels of government, will move heaven and earth to ensure there’s a 2020 college football season in some form or fashion.