Pac-12 starts discussing potential scenarios for football season
The Pac-12 Conference has had preliminary discussions about potentially holding a six- or eight-game college football season that would start in January.
(George Frey / Getty Images)
By Ben Bolch
Aug. 28, 2020 4:58 PM PT
The Pac-12 Conference has held preliminary discussions about a possible start date for the football season that was pushed back amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with multiple winter and spring options in play.
The possibilities that include six- and eight-game schedules starting as soon as January were discussed in a meeting of conference coaches Friday, according to one person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly divulge details of the conversation. One model involves only games within a team's division as part of a highly truncated season that would help the conference preserve a full 2021 fall schedule.
No decisions were made and any proposed schedule would need the approval of conference chancellors and presidents.
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After initially pushing for a 10-game, conference-only schedule, the Pac-12 announced this month that it was delaying the start of all fall sports, including football, to at least Jan. 1 because of ongoing concerns related to the novel coronavirus.
Pac-12 officials hope lowered community virus caseloads and increased availability of expedited tests can help improve conditions over the next few months, allowing the conference to proceed with sports.
While the Big Ten Conference remained in lockstep with the Pac-12 in canceling plans for a fall football season, the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences are forging ahead, with games scheduled to start next month.
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Ben Bolch
Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book "100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV's "The Starters" as the "Worst of the Week" after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.
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