An unpredictable year for college sports has taken another turn Friday as the Pac-12 announced that it would be moving to a conference-only schedule for all fall sports this year. That includes football, women's volleyball and women's soccer.
The Big Ten Conference announced on Thursday that it would be moving to a 10-game, conference-only schedule this year for fall sports and that was after the Ivy League announced this week that it is going to cancel all its fall sports with the possibility of moving them to the spring.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports continues to be our number one priority,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said after Friday's announcement by the league. “Our decisions have and will be guided by science and data, and based upon the trends and indicators over the past days, it has become clear that we need to provide ourselves with maximum flexibility to schedule, and to delay any movement to the next phase of return-to-play activities.”
The decision, which was made after a meeting of the Pac-12's CEO Group, will also cause the start dates for those sports to be delayed meaning the start of mandatory workouts will not be taking place yet.
That doesn't impact Arizona as much since the program had already decided to halt its reentry plan in recent weeks out of an abundance of caution according to athletic director Dave Heeke despite the football team already having 83 players on campus and just one positive COVID-19 test among the group. The Wildcats will lose nonconference football games against Hawaii, Portland State and Texas Tech after Friday's decision.
"Competitive sports are an integral part of the educational experience for our student-athletes, and we will do everything that we can to support them in achieving their dreams while at the same time ensuring that their health and safety is at the forefront,” said Michael Schill, Pac-12 CEO Group Chair and President of the University of Oregon.
The league says that athletes who opt to sit out of playing sports in the upcoming academic year because of health concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic will have their scholarships honored by their respective universities.
Revised schedules for the new conference-only season among the fall sports will be released by the Pac-12 no later than July 31, the conference says.
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