Pac-12, MWC plan to return to play this fall

Rapid testing of players key factor; local restrictions on gatherings to be addressed

The Mountain West joined the Pac-12 on Thursday in announcing a return to football this fall, reversing previous decisions to suspend their respective seasons until the spring due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19.

The MWC released a statement Thursday night saying it will start an eight-game regular season on Oct. 24 with the conference championship game slated for Dec. 19. Further details will be revealed Friday.

All terms, the conference said, are subject to approval from state and county officials that house each of the 12 member schools.

Earlier this week University of New Mexico athletic director Eddie Nuñez suggested a return was imminent and that the financial boost from TV revenues from the league’s new multiyear agreement with Fox and CBS would help stem the economic tide from the pandemic’s forced shut down.

He said UNM had devised a plan that called for rapid antigen tests that could be done several days a week, if not daily. MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson said any plan to return to football this fall would require a similar testing plan for all member schools.

The Pac-12, meanwhile, set a Nov. 6 start date for a seven-game football season, following the Big Ten in overturning an August decision to postpone.

With the conference having secured daily COVID-19 testing for its athletes and having been given the green light from some state and local health officials in California and Oregon, the Pac-12 university presidents voted unanimously to lift a Jan. 1 moratorium on athletic competition.

The Pac-12 s men’s and women’s basketball seasons can start Nov. 25, in line with the NCAA’s recently announced opening date. The football championship game is set for Dec. 18 — along with other cross-division games that weekend — putting the conference in play for College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six Bowl selection.

A major college football season that six weeks ago seemed to be in peril, slowly crumbling away, is reforming and has a chance to be almost whole by November. The Big Ten reversed course last week, with kickoff scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 24.

The Mid-American Conference, the first FBS league to postpone its season, is also reconsidering playing in the fall.

The Southeastern Conference begins play this weekend, joining the Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference and three others that have been up and running for weeks.

The season is ongoing but it has been anything but normal. There have been 21 games postponed or canceled since Aug. 26 because of teams battling various levels of COVID-19-related issues.

This week, four games scheduled to be played Saturday have been called off, including Notre Dame at Wake Forest because of a virus outbreak among Fighting Irish players.

The turning point for the return of fall sports for the Pac-12 came this month when it entered an agreement with a diagnostic testing company that will give each school the capability to conduct daily antigen tests on their athletes.

Daily testing should also decrease the number of

athletes who end up in quarantine after coming into what would be considered a high-risk contact with someone who has tested positive.

When the Pac-12 postponed on Aug. 11, its medical advisers had recommended daily testing for athletes to safely compete at most of the conference’s schools because of high rates of community spread of the virus.

“From the beginning of this crisis, our focus has been on following the science, data and counsel of our public health and infectious disease experts,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our agreement with Quidel to provide daily rapid-results testing has been a game-changer in enabling us to move forward with confidence that we can create a safe environment for our student-athletes while giving them the opportunity to pursue their dreams.”

The Pac-12 said its decision to restart sports is subject to approval from state and local public health officials.

Daily testing helped the Pac-12 convince state and local officials in California and

Oregon to lift restrictions that have made it impossible for teams to prepare for a football season.

There is still work to be done on that front, now in Colorado. Due to a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, Boulder County officials Thursday halted gatherings for college-aged residents for two weeks.

No fans will be permitted at Pac-12 sporting events taking place on campus, the conference said.