ARLINGTON, Texas — In a normal year, Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby opens the league's football media days patting the conference on the back for its athletic accomplishments. This was not a normal year.
"Frankly, anyone choosing to not get vaccinated is taking an unnecessary, unwarranted risk," Bowlsby said in his opening statement. "That's not just student-athletes, that's anyone in our society."
Bowlsby spent the first several minutes of his news conference addressing COVID-19 and the changes it has and continues to force upon not only the Big 12, but all of collegiate athletics.
The commissioner said roughly 90% of contests were played in the 2020-21 school year, calling the year a successful one in the Power 5's smallest conference. But, as life begins to return to normal, the Delta variant of COVID-19 has Bowlsby and the Big 12 still on their toes.
"When I introduced the topic of competition thresholds and testing protocols to the athletics directors, I don't know that I've ever introduced a topic received less warmly," Bowlsby said. "But with the Delta variant, we will have testing in some regard."
Bowlsby said the guidelines themselves are still in the works but said the conference has learned to be patient and, "We're not unprepared."
Although he also discussed name, image and likeness and expansion of the College Football Playoff, Bowlsby kept reverting back to the Delta variant and its potential impact.
Financially, Bowlsby said the conference distributed about $35 million to each school.
"That was about $4.5 million less than originally expected before the school year," Bowlsby said.
He added that the financial impact is felt much more on-campus than at the conference level, continuing that Big 12 schools will likely be recovering in to the 2023 fiscal year from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch the news conference below:
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