What would the most likely ten-game season look like?
This scenario assumes that modified sporting events are given the green light in all states, so the only differences are that travel restrictions are encouraged and that the OOC schedule is cut from four games to two. Minimal changes to each team’s existing schedule have been made:
You might notice that this is pretty charitable so far as it enables the Mountain West to have a nice number of home games, but there are a surprising number of road games that might get the axe given lingering concerns about travel: Nevada/Arkansas, Boise State/Marshall, San Diego State/Toledo, and so on.
What this doesn’t account for, though, is how the power conferences with just three non-conference games per year will handle a truncated season. Will the Pac-12 and/or Big 12 scale back conference schedules from nine games to eight or keep that intact and enable just one OOC matchup for each team? Arizona might lose its home game with Hawaii, for instance, but if given the choice to keep just one OOC game, chances are they’ll elect to hang on to their road game vs. Texas Tech.
What kind of alternative ten-game schedules might there be?
It is less likely, but could the Mountain West expand its conference schedule from eight games to nine in order to decrease travel costs?
For the most part, the ninth game was determined as an extension of interdivision games that are already set to rotate back in for 2021 and 2022 and, as best as possible, a reflection of last year’s standings.
Alternatively, now might also be a good time to experiment with pods and guarantee the top two teams meet for the championship. Here’s the three-pod set up with eight conference games and two OOC:
And here it is with nine conference games and one OOC:
What happens if California and Oregon keep big events shut down through the fall?
The Golden State has begun the laborious undertaking of reopening in four stages, though for the moment there is still a non-zero chance that large-scale events may not make a return until 2021. Considering that Fresno, San Jose, and San Diego comprise three of California’s top seven metropolitan areas — with a combined population of over six million people — there’s plenty of reasons for an abundance of caution. What would it mean for the Mountain West, though, if the Bulldogs, Spartans, and Aztecs had to sit things out?
Here’s one example of an eight-game conference schedule with two OOC opponents:
As you’d expect, the one team that may get hosed most in this scenario is Hawaii. Their current 2020 schedule features three road games at Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State, which would be replaced by three trips to the Mountain time zone. UNLV would have to replace two road trips, as well, while Nevada would swap out San Jose State for Boise State on its road schedule. Considering that the Mountain is generally perceived as being the stronger of the MWC’s two divisions going into 2020, this doesn’t look like it’ll do the three remaining West teams any favors.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1360]
[protected-iframe id=”f7652191f99ba13728097498e8a79cd8-137729785-123448869″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/show/48681pqFq0kB9dhrtPPoNd” width=”100%” height=”232″ frameborder=”0″]