Ryan Glasspiegel
Videos by OutKick
When the Pac-12 and Big Ten announced that they were eliminating non-conference games from their schedule, a common reaction to the news was that this meant the two conferences were punting on the month of September. Now, at least as far as the Pac-12 is concerned, not so fast?
Jon Wilner of the Mercury News in San Jose, who is as plugged into Pac-12 business as anyone, is reporting that the conference is planning for a 10-game schedule beginning in mid-September. There are the following parameters:
- 10-game conference-only schedule, starting September 19th. There is a contingency plan of a nine-game schedule.
- Two bye weeks per team, probably slotted in October and November, if games have to be canceled due to coronavirus issues.
- The conference title game could also be pushed from December 4th to the following weekend as a contingency.
While one of Wilner’s sources acknowledges that coronavirus numbers would have to improve over the next 1-2 months for the best case scenario to play out, this is ultimately good news for college football fans that the conference has not yet written the month of September off entirely.
As we wrote before, the Big 12 and SEC appear to be planning on forging ahead with full schedules. This was evident from the facts that 1) Texas sent an email to season ticketholders saying it was planning for a half-full stadium for home games and planning to start its season on September 5th as previously planned, and 2) Alabama is hoping to schedule a new opponent for its season opener after its game versus USC got canceled by the aforementioned Pac-12 conference-only decision.
How the College Football Playoff committee would deal with different conferences having a different amount of games would be a fascinating situation to watch play out. If this happens, expect to see TV debaters getting blue in the face over semantics.
The PAC 12 probably wants to shut down, but they are desperately fighting for relevance. Will they admit this? Of course not.
I mean it’s something. But they could totally start on time if they wanted to. At least they are coming to their senses a little.
I wonder if the CFB committee will just punt on the season and we’ll just have to settle for conference championships being the end all be all. They’re gonna have to be flexible with their plans regardless of what happens. I find it hard to imagine this virus which has no doubt been here since last year shortly after it appeared in China will keep going up and up cases wise for much longer. Our ‘first wave’ we hear about, to me, is more likely our second wave.
The incompetence at these major university systems is becoming evident with each bad Decision or lack of a coherent one.
I can’t imagine how it would feel to be a college athlete of any type and get robbed of your chance to compete. Robbed by people in cushy offices, with fat salaries and no accountability.
Athletes follow rules within their Individual sport, but they are Mavericks to the average person. They excel in part because they push limits and bend rules; and they only get to be young once.
Let athletes play or get out of the way.
These shut downs and cancellations and delays are hurting the very structure of college sports. The damage could linger and be irreversible.
Maybe the ‘Secret’ plan is to break college sports into amateur and non amateur athletics.
Ugh 😩
The PAC-12 is led by Larry Summers, who was ages better than Tom Hansen. However, Summers needs to be replaced by someone who can improve their conference financials. Otherwise, the PAC-12 will fade from relevance. Maybe USC will join the Big 12? That would be a riot.
I meant to say, Larry Scott, not Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary.