In a move which was expected, following the Big Ten’s announcement of conference-only scheduling and the Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach making this initial report on Thursday, the Pac-12 Conference did indeed announce on Friday a move to a conference-only schedule for the upcoming 2020 football season. The likelihood of the adjusted plan was again reported by Auerbach on Friday afternoon.
The Pac-12 then made the announcement later in the day:
Conference only football for the Pac-12 this fall. We all knew it was coming. Still sucks. pic.twitter.com/GHe1JWqqTR
— Matt Prehm (@MattPrehm) July 10, 2020
Let’s start with a necessary word of caution: Whether the conference actually plays a football schedule at all this fall remains up in the air following this move.
Trojans Wire explored the feasibility of a conference-only schedule in an article Thursday. It doesn’t seem that a conference-only schedule is going to prevent infections at a rate lower than a full schedule would allow. The theory behind a conference-only schedule is that it makes it a bit easier to track and trace, and to generally handle a number of logistical details, but one has to wonder if that’s really the case when taking into account the massive geographical expanse covered by the Pac-12 Conference.
The Pac-12 Conference covers six states, reaching as far north as Pullman, Washington, as far east as Boulder, Colorado, and as south as Tucson, Arizona. There’s a lot of travel and a number of precautions to take in the league. The Pac-12, occupying the Western United States, is spread out in ways most other conferences aren’t. Lots of SEC, ACC, and Big Ten teams coexist in relatively close proximity. Some schools in those Power Five conferences must fly long distances to play each other, but the Pac-12 has more long commutes for each of its member schools.
The Oregon schools and the Washington schools aren’t too far apart; the same goes for the Los Angeles schools and the Arizona schools… but in terms of all 12 schools traveling to other game sites, there aren’t as many short hops as there are in other Power Five leagues. It’s quite an undertaking and seems a difficult task to pull off.
If this allows the conference a better shot at handling these issues, I’m all for the Pac-12 playing a conference-only schedule. My suspicion, however, is that we will see this conversation be revisited fairly soon. One FCS league has already ditched fall football, so it wouldn’t be too shocking to see other leagues follow suit.
Another aspect to consider here is the financial cost of traveling these distances in an economic downturn. At a time when schools, including Stanford in the Pac-12, are cutting large swaths of sports, traveling all over the West Coast might not be the most prudent financial decision. It’s certainly difficult to justify when other students are being told their entire worlds are about to change. Any way you slice it, playing college football in the fall is going to be a chore. Whatever decisions these schools take should have athlete safety at the top of the priority list.