Pac-12 considers scheduling changes
No Pac-12 football team that plays a Saturday road game will be required to play away from home again the following Friday in a revamped 2018 schedule.
Commissioner Larry Scott said Thursday that the Pac-12 Conference has discussed scheduling changes with its member universities to find a better solution for next season given concerns and scrutiny over the challenges of 2017.
Holiday Bowl-bound Washington State won a night game at Oregon on Oct. 7 then returned to the road and took a 37-3 thumping at California in Berkeley that following Friday. Conference champion USC also had that happen: the Trojans won at Cal on Sept. 23, a Saturday, then lost in Pullman, Washington, to the Cougars the next Friday.
Questions arose about whether scheduling affected the conference’s overall success and ability to land a team in the College Football Playoff.
Penn State
Penn State running back Saquon Barkley was shut out at the college football awards ceremony in Atlanta Thursday night.
He was a finalist for two awards — the Maxwell (best player) and the Doak Walker (top running back) — but didn’t win either. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield received the Maxwell, while Stanford’s Bryce Love got the Walker.
The day wasn’t a total loss for Barkley, however. Earlier, he was named recipient of the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football award, which goes to the top player in the Big Ten, as voted by the conference’s coaches. He also was honored as a first-team Walter Camp All-American, making him the 100th Penn State player to earn such recognition.
More Penn State
Penn State’s recruiting class of 2018 shrunk to 20 Thursday night when offensive lineman Antwan Reed de-committed. Reed, who is from Muskegon, Mich., is rated a four-star prospect by Rivals.
The Nittany Lions, whose class was ranked fourth in the nation before Reed’s departure, could award as many as 25 scholarships to the coming class. The early signing period for recruits, which is new this year, begins Dec. 20. A number of Penn State’s priority recruiting targets could make their college choices on or around that date.