Reversal: The Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences decided their schools can play football this fall after all.
The Pac12 and Mountain West conferences reversed course Thursday, with both leagues deciding their schools can play football this fall after deciding in August to push the season to the spring.
The Pac12 has plans for a sevengame season, with games set to begin Nov. 6. The MWC envisions an eightgame season, with games beginning the week of Oct. 24.
With the Pac12 having secured daily coronavirus testing for its athletes and having been given the green light from some state and local health officials in California and Oregon, the Pac12 university presidents voted unanimously to lift a Jan. 1 moratorium on athletic competition.
The Pac12’s men’s and women’s basketball seasons can start Nov. 25, in line with the NCAA’s recently announced opening date. The Pac12’s football championship game is set for Dec. 18 — along with other crossdivision games that weekend — putting the conference in play for College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six Bowl selection.
“We have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time to be prepared, and we will be nimble and flexible in that preparation,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. “There has been a lot of work done by so many people to get us to this point, and we realize that we must continue to follow all protocols and guidelines that have been established in order to play football this year.”
A major college football season that six weeks ago seemed to be in peril is reforming and has a chance to be almost whole by November. The Big Ten reversed course last week, with its season’s kickoff scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 24.
The SEC begins play this weekend, joining the Big 12, ACC and three others that have been up and running for weeks.
The turning point for the return of fall sports for the Pac12 came this month when it entered an agreement with a diagnostictesting company that will give each school the capability to conduct daily antigen tests on its athletes.
“We are eager for all of our studentathletes to have the opportunity to play this season, assuming it can be done safely and with the appropriate public health authority approvals,” Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir said in a statement. “We have been in touch with Santa Clara County and look forward to continuing to work with them to create a path for our studentathletes to train and compete. As we continue those conversations, the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, coaches and community remains our top priority.”