By yesterday evening, a multitude of developments surfaced regarding the ongoing debate and process surrounding playing football this fall.

The Big Ten Conference reversed its course established in August and opted to play an eight-game schedule this fall. The Pac-12 appears to be on a similar course.

Here in Colorado, high schools were cleared by the CHSAA Board of Directors to make their own calls on whether or not to play football this fall.

If you missed out on the news yesterday, here's a rundown of what all happened.

The last few weeks has seen a back and forth conversation between the CHSAA, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and the Governor's COVID Response Team. The topic of concern of course was primarily regarding allowing football to be played this fall.

Within the state, pressure on both Polis and the CHSAA mounted from players and parents across the state who want to play this fall. The "LetCOPlay" movement was one such internal example of how in-state residents began organizing to make the case for high school football to be allowed this fall.

Looking across the U.S., Colorado is not the first state to reverse course after initially moving the prep football season to 2021. Michigan also recently approved football to start in mid-September after initially postponing it to the spring.

In total, 15 states plus the District of Columbia will continue to opt for football in 2021. Colorado and Michigan join the ranks of the 35 remaining states that will allow prep football to be played this fall.

Of course, there are strings attached, safety measures and a load of stipulations in place for prep football to happen in Colorado this fall. The full "Guidance for Organized Sports" from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment can be found here.

In short, all participants —coaches, players and staff alike — will be required wear masks at all times when not engaged in competition. Six-foot social distancing must be maintained.

Football, field hockey and cheer are the sports approved to compete this fall. Those sports and their respective schools have the choice of competing this fall within the "Season A" calendar.

Back in August, the CHSAA created seasons A-D, with A being the only block of sports that could be played in fall; B, C and D blocks all were slated to commence in early 2021.

Individual schools can choose to play in the A block (this fall) or stick to the original plan and play in 'Season C" which would run from early March through the end of April.

How this will impact the postseason and state title games has yet to be determined. The next happening(s) to keep an eye out for will be individual announcements from Colorado high schools, determining what they play to do.

College hoops also got the green light to return to competition this fall. In August, when the Pac-12 pulled the plug on all fall sports competition, there was immediate frustration expressed, notably from Tad Boyle, about the prematureness in axing the hoops season.

Point being, this fall, many schools across the country already have planned to transition to online-only learning after Thanksgiving break. With the vast majority of student bodies off of campus beginning the third week of November, in theory, campuses would turn into mini bubbles in their own right.

Now, approval was given for Nov. 25 to be the start-up date for the 2020-2021 hoops season. Beginning on Oct. 14, teams can begin conditioning and engage in sports-related meetings and instruction for up to 12 hours per week.

A 27-game schedule has been approved.

The D1 Council also stipulated that the minimum number of games played for NCAA Tournament consideration was cut from 25 to 13, given the expectation that schools inevitably will have to alter their schedules or potentially cancel games as the ongoing nationwide battle against COVID-19 continues.

Yesterday, the Big Ten announced formally that it was reversing course. An eight-game schedule will be played, beginning the weekend of Oct. 23-24.

With that announcement, the Pac-12 stands alone as the only Power Five conference that as of now, will watch from afar as the majority of college football plays this fall.

But that could be subject to change in the coming weeks. A snafu that was identified yesterday was that for the Pac-12 Presidents to even consider voting on a fall return of football and sports competition, state governmental approval from political and medial officials in California and Oregon — where six of the conference's 12 schools are located — would be needed.

Commissioner Larry Scott released a statement in the evening that said such approval from California Gov. Gavin Newson and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had been delivered.

From there, each respective school must get approval from its corresponding local medical and political officials to get the green light to return to competition.

Quickly, as Jon Wilner of the Mercury News first reported, UCLA and USC joined forces, petitioned Los Angeles County officials, and got the necessary approval required.

Now, the Trojans and Bruins can commence 11-on-11 practices. Now, eyes are on Stanford and Cal Berkeley as they must receive similar approval and sanctioning to return to action from their respective county officials.

On Wednesday, Oregon and Oregon State conducted a similar meeting with the Oregon health Authority to get their own approval to return to practice and eventually competition.

While further confirmations and blessings will be needed, there is broad optimism that the respective colleges will get the green light given that pro teams in their vicinity have.

In a day full of positives and optimism, there was one glaring negative. Until January 1 at the earliest, recruits will not be allowed to conduct any official or unofficial visits to campuses, per a decision announced Wednesday by the NCAA D1 Council.

What's more, they will not be allowed to attend college games as unofficial visitors, a regular happening every fall.

The main implication of this is that for Class of 2021 recruits, bad luck continues to compromise their ability to make as informed decision as possible about where they want to spend the next three, four or five years of their lives.

Many schools and programs, including CU and its football tam, have adopted hosting recruits on Zoom for virtual visits, but as players and coaches alike will tell you, that is far from the real deal and seeing things in-person.

The NCAA instituted the dead period initially on March 13.