When the PAC-12 formally announced they will not be playing football this fall, they dropped an unexpected tidbit in there, cancelling all spring events in 2020 – including men’s and women’s basketball.
That news not only came as a surprise to the fans and the other conferences, it was a surprise to the coaches and staff members of PAC-12 basketball programs as well.
“It came a little earlier than we anticipated,” said Cal coach Mark Fox, a member of the basketball working group. “But at the end of the day, the decision was based on science and medicine.”
The #Pac12 surprised the cbb world when it canceled games for Nov/Dec. But it has been quietly crafting a strategy for playing in the Covid world, and it's pretty damn smarthttps://t.co/OOJp7UzY9z
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) August 13, 2020
However – just because the announcement felt rushed and perhaps made it look like the PAC-12 was making decisions without a concrete plan, that could not be further from the truth.
An excellent article from Jon Wilner of the Mercury News lays out some of the plans being tossed around by PAC-12 coaches and officials to make sure college basketball can happen in a safe, productive environment starting in early 2021.
Among the most notable plans is to do four-team pods, all played in one location, for round-robin style play.
The example given is if UCLA and USC travel to Oregon, they would converge in Eugene to play a round-robin tournament with both Oregon and Oregon State, potentially knocking out both their games against each opponent over a long weekend.
This could even include having the women’s team’s traveling at the same time, helping to eliminate potential risk factors, while still getting to play a full conference slate – and potentially even more.
“We’ve talked about playing more than that,” Fox continued. “There are a lot of options on the table.”
There are still plenty of logistics to knock out, but for those concerned the 2020 basketball games were cancelled in a reactionary measure, it does sound like the conference is working on a plan. And it just might work.
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