As expected, the Pac-12 on Friday announced the details of its previously decided conference-only football season that will feature 10 games and begin Sept. 26. The conference previously decided to move to a fall schedule that only features league opponents three weeks ago with the plan to announce the more details by the end of the month.
Arizona's schedule was reshuffled in the process with its regular-season finale matchup with Arizona State now at the front of the schedule as the first game for both teams. Commissioner Larry Scott said that decision was made to give the league and teams some flexibility should either team need to push back the start date of the season.
Both Arizona and ASU will have the same bye week, Oct. 17, leaving open the possibility of moving the game to that date should either team not be ready to start the season on time. In that scenario the first week would be treated as a bye.
The Territorial Cup Game had originally been scheduled for Nov. 28 under the original league slate that was scrapped three weeks ago when the conference decided to move to a league-only schedule for the fall.
Arizona's Week 2 matchup on the road against Washington is also one game that could be moved to another part of the schedule if needed as the Pac-12 has decided to leave an open date on Dec. 12 for all teams that might not be ready to play within the first two weeks.
The Pac-12 Championship will also have changes this year as the expected move to Las Vegas will have to wait as the league has decided to make it a home-hosted event this year meaning the team with the best record at the end of the regular season will be this year's host site.
Overall, the Wildcats will have five road games and five home games throughout the season with UA's home slate now set to finish with a Friday night matchup against Oregon Nov. 20 at Arizona Stadium. Arizona's final game of the regular season, barring any changes along the way, will take place on the road against Stanford Dec. 5.
That is the one game from Arizona's original scheduled that was flipped to a road game to balance the revised 2020 slate. UA was originally set to host the Cardinal to open up Pac-12 play Sept. 12 in Tucson.
"This remains a very dynamic process," Commissioner Larry Scott said during a virtual webinar with Pac-12 reporters Friday afternoon. "The health and safety of our student athletes continues to be of paramount important, and we continue to be, and our schools continue to be, in close consultation with public health authorities and other governmental authorities that will ultimately determine and approve our ability to move forward."
The league is set to allow programs to begin training camp Aug. 17, local health guidelines permitting. For other fall sports that will begin Aug. 15.
Scott said he remains unsure of whether or not football will ultimately be able to take place this fall, but the league is moving forward with its plan for a season this fall.
“I don’t know,” Scott said when asked whether or not he believed there will be football in 2020. “We are cautiously optimistic sitting here today. … There are elements outside of our control that are gonna have a lot of influence on that question. What’s happening in our communities? What’s happening in our campuses? … What happens when thousands of students come back to our campus? None of us have the answer to that question.”
Flexibility has been at the forefront of all the league's decisions about the season and having time to see coronavirus trends can only help determine whether or not games get played this year. As for fans, Scott is not going to make any type of decision about that.
Instead, he is going to leave that choice up to local health officials and schools to ultimately decide.
Arizona is moving ahead with its reentry plan after announcing earlier this week that it will restart that plan Monday by bringing in football newcomers with other sports set to return to campus in the coming weeks. The reentry plan had been on hold since June when the Wildcats decided to halt the process after bringing in 83 football players due to concerns about the increasing positive COVID-19 cases in Pima County.
UA's revised 2020 conference-only schedule (home games in bold)
> Sept. 26: ASU
> Oct. 3: at Washington
> Oct. 10: Colorado
> Oct. 17: BYE
> Oct. 24: USC
> Oct. 31: at Utah
> Nov. 7: at Oregon State
> Nov. 14: Cal
> Nov. 20: Oregon (Friday)
> Nov. 28: at UCLA
> Dec. 5: at Stanford
> Dec. 12: League-wide open date
> Dec. 18 or 19: Pac-12 Championship (home-hosted)
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