Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Sirius XM on Thursday there have been discussions about delaying the playoff and the New Year’s Six bowls because of COVID-19.
“I am on the CFP operations committee and we spent some time talking about that,” Bowlsby said. “We have not come to any closure on it, but there is some latitude to postpone it if that need should arise.
“The same is true with some of the New Year’s Six games,” he said. “I don’t know if I see us playing a championship game in February, but you just never know. These are unusual times and things that might not otherwise be acceptable have to be considered in this kind of circumstance.”
The 13 members of the CFP’s selection committee are scheduled to release their first ranking on Nov. 24, and their final ranking on Dec. 20. As the SEC continues to navigate its way through a tumultuous week during which four games were postponed in a span of three days, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked on Wednesday about the possibility of pushing the playoff back, and he told reporters, “We have finish lines right now.”
“The semifinals are on [January] first,” Sankey said. “The championship is on the 11th. The reality is if you walk in the back of my building, there’s a sign that says be flexible.
“I’m not going to hypothesize about change,” Sankey said, “but I’m not inattentive to the potential that change may need to occur at a number of different levels.”