College Football

Big 12 Announces 9+1 Schedule

Updated Aug. 4, 2020 12:56 p.m. ET

The Big 12 Board of Directors approved a schedule for the 2020 football season that includes 9 conference games and one non-conference game, the league confirmed Monday evening.

The start of conference play will be confirmed in the next few weeks, with an anticipated start date in late September – either Sept. 19 or Sept. 26. The 10-team league regularly plays a 9-game, round-robin conference slate, and is the only Power 5 conference that plays in that format.

Non-conference games will be played prior to the beginning of league play. Currently, four Big 12 teams have non-conference matchups scheduled on Aug. 29, which would represent Week 0.

The Big 12 doesn't currently have any non-conference games scheduled against Power 5 opponents due to the scheduling changes.

The Big 12 Championship Game is still scheduled for Dec. 5 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but this model allows for flexibility to change the date to Dec. 12 or 19, if necessary.

The schedule has not yet been published, but marquee games including Big 12 teams – such as West Virginia vs. Florida State, Baylor vs. Ole Miss, Oklahoma vs. Tennessee and Texas vs. LSU – will not go on.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione confirmed to ESPN that the Sooners are planning on participating in the Red River Rivalry game against Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

As of Monday, every Power 5 conference has altered its schedule for the upcoming season due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Big 12 joined the ACC as the only two leagues that kept one non-conference matchup.

The ACC was the first league to release an altered schedule of 11 games, featuring 10 conference games and one non-conference game.

The SEC followed up with a 10-game, conference-only schedule, followed by the Pac-12, which announced it would adopt a conference-only schedule as well.

The Big Ten is the only league that has not released the details for their conference-only season.