Pac12 gets closer to kickoff
California, Oregon governors say there are no football restrictions
The ripple effect from the Big Ten approving a plan to begin its football season Oct. 24 reached the West Coast on Wednesday afternoon when the governors of California and Oregon reportedly opened the door to the Pac12 also returning to the field in the near future.
The Big Ten’s decision had left the Pac12 as the only Power 5 conference yet to announce plans to play games in coming months.
But after saying earlier in the day that the Pac12 could not return to the field because of governmental restrictions in California and Oregon, Pac12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a Wednesday afternoon tweet from the Pac12 that the conference “welcomes statements by Governor (Gavin) Newsom of California and Governor (Kate) Brown of Oregon that state public health officials will allow for contact practice and return to competition, and that there are no state restrictions on our ability to play sports in light of our adherence to strict health and safety protocols and stringent testing requirements.”
Per ESPN, if California and Oregon approve the start of contact practices, the Pac12 is expected to need six weeks of preparation before it begins playing games.
That would put a potential start date in mid to late November.
In early August, the Pac12
had voted to postpone all sports through the end of 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Scott had said: “At this time, our universities in California and Oregon do not have approval from state or local public health officials to start contact practice.”
That led Newsom, at his daily briefing with the media in Sacramento, to counter Scott and say the option for the Pac12 to restart was available.
“I want to make this crystal clear: Nothing in the state guidelines deny the ability for the Pac12 to resume,” Newsom said. “Quite the contrary. That has been a misrepresentation of the facts.”
He later added: “They can resume football. There’s nothing in the guidelines that say the Pac12 cannot move forward. Period. Full stop. So I just want to make that crystal clear.”
Newsom said he had talked with Scott and “we’re committed to working with the Pac12, working with the NCAA, to keep our kids safe, to keep our coaches safe, to keep the coaching staff and friends and families safe, and to keep the larger campus community safe.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Oregon’s Brown and the Oregon Health Authority, as reported by the Oregonian, “granted a request from the
University of Oregon and Oregon State University athletic departments for an exemption to OHA’s sports guidance.”
A similar exemption reportedly was given to professional sports teams in Oregon, but final approval for the colleges is awaiting OHA’s approval of a Pac12 plan to keep athletes and coaches safe during the pandemic.
In his later statement, Scott wrote: “Our California and Oregon universities will now each individually and immediately reach out to their relevant county public health officials to seek clarification on what is required” to restart practices and, eventually, games.
Scott earlier had referenced a deal the Pac12 made this month with an FDAapproved test manufacturer to offer daily testing (which should be up and running in early October), saying: “We are hopeful that our new daily testing capability can help satisfy public health official approvals in California and Oregon to begin contact practice and competition.”