The Big 12 plans to play its football championship game Dec. 19 after previously listing that Saturday and the preceding one as tentative dates.
The conference's first public acknowledgment of a set date came Monday when it announced that a limited number of tickets will go on sale to the public Friday for the game at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.
While the Big 12 didn't provide a specific number for public sales, the Cowboys have averaged 25,750 fans for its five home games so far at the 80,000-seat stadium, with a high of 31,700 against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 8.
About 10,000 tickets will be held back for allocation to the schools who play in the game. Both competing teams will get about 5,000 tickets, including 500 for students.
When Oklahoma State's game at Baylor was rescheduled from Oct. 17 to Dec. 12, the league said then it was still possible for the Big 12 championship game to be played that date. That is the only conference game in the Big 12 that has been changed so far because of COVID-19 issues, though that date is available if needed if any other games have to be rescheduled.
The SEC and ACC, the other Power Five conferences allowing fans at games this season, are also scheduled to play their championship games Dec. 19. The Big Ten championship game is also scheduled Dec. 19, a day after the Pac-12 title game.
For the SEC game in Atlanta, the league said because of reduced capacity, all available tickets would be provided to the two teams competing for sale to students, players' families and a very limited number of their season ticketholders.
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Capacity for the ACC game in Charlotte, North Carolina, will also be limited, though the league hasn't made any announcement about ticket sales.
The Big 12 championship game last December between Oklahoma and Baylor had an attendance of 65,191. That was a year after the league's title game record of 83,144 fans for the Sooners and Texas.
