Just when it seemed like the Big 12 was ready to push all its chips to the center of college football's metaphorical poker table and bet everything on the hope of pulling off a full-fledged season of 12 games during a pandemic this fall, the conference must now re-evaluate its strategy.
Too many other conferences may have already walked away from the table for the Big 12 to make an aggressive play.
The Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC will only play conference games this season. The ACC is shooting for a conference-only model that allows each of its member schools to play one non-conference game of its choosing, so long as the game is played within that team's home state and both parties agree to adhere to the ACC's coronavirus testing protocols.
Teams within the Big 12 have done an impressive job of replacing games that have been canceled thus far (Kansas traded New Hampshire for Southern Illinois, Iowa State traded Iowa for Ball State and TCU is close to announcing a replacement for California, perhaps UNLV).
But things just got a lot harder for any team with an opening on its schedule.
It's possible that every Big 12 team could find enough replacement opponents from the FCS ranks or smaller FBS conferences to fill out their schedules, but at this point the easier (and safer) move appears to be following the lead of their power-conference peers and settling for a reduced schedule consisting almost entirely of league games.
That, of course, comes with the major caveat that there might not be a college football season at all as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to climb across the country.
A decision will be made soon. Multiple Big 12 teams, including Kansas and Oklahoma, begin preseason camp Friday just in case they are given the green light to play non-conference games on Aug. 29. The conference will also hold a Virtual Media Day with Commissioner Bob Bowlsby and coaches Monday morning.
Then, in a poorly timed sequence of events, the Big 12 presidents are scheduled to meet and choose a scheduling plan Monday evening.
Here are a few options they will consider:
