Pac-12 CEO Group postpones fall sports season
The idea that college football would have to be moved to the spring is something that was on a lot of minds back when the COVID-19 pandemic started in the spring forcing the cancellation of spring sports and the NCAA Tournament. It is something college athletics administrators badly wanted to avoid, but it is now the reality after the Pac-12 CEO Group made up of presidents and chancellors from across the conference voted to push the fall sports season to the spring in addition to delaying all sports until Jan. 1, 2021.
“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is.”
The buzz behind the scenes about a postponement of the season intensified over the last several days leading to a decision by the Pac-12 to pull the plug on the season for now. Previously, the league decided to move to a conference-only schedule that would limit the football season to 10 games with built-in flexibility to maneuver through any challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that could impact games being played.
The season had been set to begin Sept. 26 with Arizona taking on Arizona State in Tucson. The Pac-12 schedule allowed the first two games of the season to be moved to later dates should any teams run into issues during their preparations forcing them to delay those contests.
The league also set aside an open week for all teams for any games that were lost during the season and needed to be made up.
While the Pac-12 has been among the most cautious Power Five conferences when it comes to the virus and has avoided a large outbreak up to this point, the concern about a heart condition connected to the coronavirus that could impact athletes who contract COVID-19 reportedly forced the league to reconsider its plan.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 have been the two major conferences looking at the possibility of moving their seasons to the spring while the SEC and ACC have leaned on advice from their own medical staffs to move ahead with the season as planned at this point. The Big Ten announced its plans to postpone the fall sports season to the spring earlier in the day Tuesday.
Tuesday's decisions by both conferences could force other leagues to take a stronger look at the possibility of moving fall sports to the spring as well.
There are now 53 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, out of 130, that will not be playing football this fall after the Pac-12's decision. The Mountain West decided to postpone its season Monday while the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS conference to make the same move Saturday. Both leagues also feature 12 teams.
FBS Independent teams UConn and UMass both decided to postpone their seasons with the last several days as well. Old Dominion announced Monday that it would do the same, but the rest of the teams in Conference USA are planning to move ahead with the upcoming season as of now.
Losing out on the fall sports season is certainly going to make an impact on the financial aspect of college athletics and that is a big part of why it has been viewed as a las resort among administrators.
"Healthy football and healthy basketball is really important for all of our programs otherwise it becomes very difficult to manage the expenses that surround the individual programs that we have across the board," Arizona's athletic director Dave Heeke said in the spring. "That’s something every campus will face, every athletic director and president will face if we lose a college football season.
"Again, it’s really important that we find a way to play college football and maintain some semblance of order.”
That is now the reality and the Pac-12 will now have to figure out how it can make college football feasible in the spring and there will certainly still be plenty of challenges ahead after Tuesday's decision.
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