Return Of Pro Sports Without Fans In California Could Pave Way For Pac-12 Football

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that pro sports can continue beginning June 1. The events can take place without spectators and with modifications and very prescriptive conditions.

California had stay at home orders with LA county placing them until July. The Cal State University system announced last week that the fall semester will not be in person and would be done virtually.

The CSU system does not impact any of the California schools that are in the Pac-12 which includes USC, UCLA, Stanford or Cal. It does impact two schools from the Mountain West Conference in Fresno State and San Diego State.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the state could see pro sports return by the first week of June without fans. pic.twitter.com/j4PPg56Yn7

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 18, 2020

Paving The Way For Pac-12 Football

Now that the state of California is opening up to pro sports in June, this only paves the way for the Pac-12 to play football in 2020. A lot of the decisions were coming down to the state of California’s direction because a third of the members in the Pac-12 are in the state.

Although, the news that was announced on Monday was towards pro sports, this is only the beginning of a positive trend for college sports. If pro sports will be allowed in June that gives the state and region plenty of time to be ready by the start of the college football season in September.

Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan said on Friday that the school hopes to open their facilities to their student-athletes by June 1. The state of Arizona is already allowing sports to take place. Washington, Oregon and Colorado have not announced any plans as of right now.

What Modifications Are Done To The Season?

I think we can all agree that the question is will their be a college football season but rather when will the college football season start. The only downfall is that it is unknown if fans will be allowed in the stands in the fall.

The thing to takeaway from this is that college football will almost certainly happen but if you are forced to watch it on television rather than attending the game in person and that’s okay.

The fact that this news gives us the feeling that college football will be in the air at some point in the fall is a huge positive and we should chalk it up as a win.

The other modifications that could happen is that they shortened the season to 9 or 10 games as the coaches have mentioned last week during the coaches media webinars. Another option is playing just the teams in your conference, which Kyle Whittingham has publicly said that he would be okay with and is “all in.”

Whatever the coming details that unfold in the next two months, it’s good to know that the possibility of having college football in the fall is much higher than we thought a few weeks ago.

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.