Report: Pac-12 Planning On 10-Game Conference-Only Schedule Beginning Mid-September
Jul 23, 2020, 9:36 AM
The Utah Utes take the field against the Idaho State Bengals in NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)
(Ravell Call, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Pac-12 will be moving forward with a 10-game conference-only schedule for football that will begin in the middle of September.
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Pac-12 Insider Jon Wilner of the Bay Area News Group received details from sources that are familiar with the plan.
According to Wilner, the conference is planning a fairly aggressive approach that spans a maximum of 14 weeks.
Breaking: #Pac12 finalizing aggressive conference-only schedule with mid-Sept start and three dates for champ game. We have details:https://t.co/Xi38PaDHQA
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) July 23, 2020
Start Date, Opponents
The conference is assuming some success in the next month or two against the coronavirus which is why they are planning on starting the season on September 19, which would have been the third week of the college football season.
Wilner noted that the Pac-12 will play 10 games, playing all five of their division opponents and five opponents from the other division. It’s been reported that Utah will add Oregon to their schedule. If the conference sticks to the original conference schedule while adding one of the two schools that wasn’t originally on the schedule, the Utes won’t play Stanford in the regular season.
Pac-12 teams would not start training camp until the middle of August. Each team will have two bye weeks that are built into their schedule which would create windows for games that cannot be played as scheduled.
Wilner reported that the Pac-12 is allowing for a cushion in early December, at the end of the regular season.
Pac-12 Championship
The Pac-12 championship game was scheduled for Friday, December 4 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Wilner, that date remains an option under “a best-case scenario.”
If any of the games have to be pushed back and played at the end of the regular season, the championship game will be moved. It could be played the weekend of December 11-12 or 18-19. The 18th or 19th is a concern with the conference because any teams that are playing in any New Year’s Day bowl games or the College Football Playoff, those schools will only have two weeks to prepare rather than one month.
When the Pac-12 announced on July 10 that they would move to a conference-only schedule for fall sports, they stated that they would have schedule details out no later than July 31.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
