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Reports: Big 12 will move forward with plans to play football this fall

Apparent good news for fans of the ACC and SEC, too.

NCAA Football: North Carolina State at West Virginia Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

While officials in the Big 12 wrapped up a multi-hour meeting between commissioner Bob Bolwsby, university presidents, and doctors, news started to emerge about the conference’s plan to continue moving forward towards a fall football season, even as the Big Ten and Pac-12 made the Tuesday decisions to cancel all sports this fall.

The school athletic directors are expected to start their call at 8 p.m. Central, but it’s not clear when that meeting might wrap up and when the schedule would potentially emerge afterwards.

And with the Big 12 considered the “linchpin” for the ACC and SEC, conferences mostly sidelined from the news making on Tuesday, the Big 12’s pending decision looks like it will represent good news for those conferences continuing the same efforts towards playing this fall.

[8:00 p.m. Central update]: From Chip Brown at Horns 247:

One league source said the majority of Big 12 schools is in favor of a fall college football season but need reassurance from the medical community that it can be done safely. Another source said the Big 12 received reassurances also from the SEC and ACC that those members of the Power Five also planned to keep preparing for a fall football season.

Brown also reported that the Big 12 is receiving medical advice from campus medical staff and an independent group called Infection Control Education for Major Sports (ICS) run by two Duke infectious disease doctors.

The three remaining Group of Five schools also followed the Big 12’s lead, a move that preserves the possibility of the Big 12 playing the one non-conference game currently planned.

[8:12 p.m. Central]: Here’s how the Big 12 plans to address the serious, emerging medical concerns about COVID-19 patients developing myocardia:

[9:35 p.m. Central update]:

[10:35 p.m. Central update]: ESPN reports that the Big 12 will push the season back to Sept. 26.

This is a developing story.