Report: Pac-12 Programs Can Be Ready To Play In Six Weeks Or Less
Sep 17, 2020, 2:23 PM
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 – Pac-12 football teams will reportedly be ready for the season with six weeks or less of preparation time.
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Barriers continue to be passed through and we are getting closer to seeing Pac-12 and Utah football in the fall at some point.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports, the Pac-12 football working group had a call on Thursday. Most of the programs said that they could be ready to play in six weeks or less if they could start the ramp to games on Monday.
Source: The Pac-12 football working group had a call today. A vast majority of the programs indicated they could be ready to play in six weeks or less if they could start the ramp to games on Monday.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 17, 2020
The Pac-12 CEO Group that is comprised of Presidents and Chancellors from each of the 12 universities in the conference will meet on Friday. If programs can begin preparations for the season on Monday, September 21, six weeks from that point would be Monday, October 26. The season could begin on Halloween or November 7.
On Wednesday, the Pac-12 was still in the dark on when they could start their season. The Big Ten announced that they will begin their season the weekend of October 24. Following the announcement, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott sent out a statement that stated the conference couldn’t move forward without approval from the state of California and Oregon, who held restrictions on contact practices.
Later in the day on Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he and Scott spoke on the phone and that none of their guidelines interfered with the Pac-12 teams in the state to play. USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford have to get approval from their county officials. After that, Oregon Governor Kate Brown granted exemption requests for Oregon and Oregon State. They will be allowed to compete but the state is asking for a written protocol from the conference.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
