Big 12 sets COVID-19 cancellation guidelines for football games

The Big 12 conference released more guidance to their schools Friday on what exactly it would take for a football game to be canceled because of COVID-19.

This comes shortly after news TCU will postpone its rivalry game against SMU to to be determined date. The game was originally scheduled for Sept 11.

The conference says 53 healthy players must be available for a game to happen. This is out of the total number of roster players, including walk-ons and scholarship players.

In a statement from the conference, they lay out additional details:

Additional minimum thresholds of available players were also established for offensive linemen (7), interior defensive linemen (4) and quarterback (1). Teams falling below any of these benchmarks, based on game week test results, could still elect to play as scheduled if so desired. Otherwise, upon approval by the Commissioner, the game would be declared a no-contest if it cannot be moved to a later date.{Big12Sports.com}

Oklahoma State has reported five active COVID-19 cases among all sports, including two on the football team, on Sept. 1 with testing data through Aug. 27. The other three active cases were labeled as “all other sports” which is separate from fall sports like cross-country and women’s soccer.

OSU is scheduled to kick off its 2020 season against in-state non-conference foe Tulsa at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at Boone Pickens Stadium. The Cowboys will then have a bye week before starting their nine-game Big 12 schedule against West Virginia on Sept. 26 in Stillwater.