ACC, SEC want to play football this fall, Big 12 silent on issue

With the Big Ten and Pac-12 canceling fall sports Tuesday, here's where the other three Power Five conferences stood on the issue in what remains a fluid situation:

The Atlantic Coast Conference is moving forward with plans to play an 11-game football schedule, with 10 conference games and one nonconference game, beginning Sept. 12.

Notre Dame — an independent in footbut an ACC member in other sports — is also playing a 10-game conference schedule and will be eligible for the ACC Championship Game.

In a statement Tuesday, the ACC said it "will continue to make decisions based on medical advice, inclusive of our Medical Advisory Group, local and state health guidelines, and do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our universities' academic missions.

"The safety of our students, staff and overall campus communities will always be our top priority, and we are pleased with the protocols being administrated on our 15 campuses.

"We will continue to follow our process that has been in place for months and has served us well.

"We understand the need to stay flexible and prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves."

The Southeastern Conference is still intent on playing, too.

The SEC revealed its new conference-only football schedule Friday after deciding on the format the previous week, with teams playing six games within their division and four against teams in the other division. Games are scheduled to begin Sept. 26.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey issued this statement: "I look forward to learning more about the factors that led to the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today. I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes.

" We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes every day."

This came a day after he wrote on Twitter: "We know concerns remain. We have never had a FB season in a COVID-19 environment. Can we play? I don't know. We haven't stopped trying.

" We support, educate and care for student-athletes every day, and will continue to do so."

The Big 12 Conference was conspicuous in its silence; neither the conference nor Commissioner Bob Bowlsby issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.

The conference might be the decisive one in whether or not the ACC and SEC play as well, although Bowlsby told the Dallas Morning News on Monday: "Since there isn't any decision that requires all of [the Power Five conferences] to vote one direction or another, I wouldn't characterize it as a swing vote.

' I don't have any idea how the other leagues are going to arrive at their decisions. But we're going to listen and do what's best for our student-athletes."

The league's board of directors and athletic directors, as well as conference medical experts were on a conference call discussing the path forward Tuesday evening, and multiple media outlets, all citing unnamed sources, reported that the conference was leaning toward attempting to play football this fall.

The conference has yet to reveal its revamped football schedule, although the plan was for each school to play the other nine schools in the conference as well as one nonconference home game.