The Pac-12 is set to kickoff a seven-game football season Nov. 6 after it followed the Big Ten in overturning an August decision to punt on playing in the fall because of concerns about COVID-19.

With the conference having secured daily COVID-19 testing for its athletes and having been given the green light from some state and local health officials in California and Oregon, the Pac-12 university presidents voted unanimously to lift a Jan. 1 moratorium on athletic competition.

“The discussion among the presidents and chancellors was largely about the benefits as well as the cons of starting in the fall versus starting in January,” University of Oregon President Michael Schill said. “The consensus opinion was the benefits of starting in the fall were much greater than the benefits of starting in the .. winter.

“Things changed from the first time we addressed this issue.”

The Pac-12′s men’s and women’s basketball seasons can start Nov. 25, in line with the NCAA’s recently announced opening date. The football championship game is set for Dec. 18 – along with other cross-division games that weekend – putting the conference in play for College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six Bowl selection.

A major college football season that six weeks ago seemed to be in peril is reforming and has a chance to be almost whole by November. The Big Ten reversed course last week, with games scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 24.

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Mountain West presidents were meeting Thursday night to discuss a possible late October start to the football season, and the Mid-American Conference – the first FBS league to postpone – is also reconsidering playing in the fall.

The Southeastern Conference begins play this weekend, joining the Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference and three others that have been up and running for weeks.

The season is underway for some schools, but it has been anything but normal. There have been 21 games postponed or canceled since Aug. 26 because of teams battling various levels of COVID-19-related issues.

This week, four games scheduled to be played Saturday have been called off, including Notre Dame at Wake Forest because of a virus outbreak among Fighting Irish players.

The turning point for the return of fall sports for the Pac-12 came this month when it entered an agreement with a diagnostic testing company that will give each school the capability to conduct daily antigen tests on their athletes.

Still, it took three weeks for the conference to reverse course on fall football, leaving it starting later and scheduled to play fewer games than the other Power Five conferences.

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“I don’t think we’re behind,” Schill said. “I think that we are acting deliberately. We are acting in the students best interest. We waited until we were able to if not ensure, protect their health and safety.”

Schill said state and local restrictions in California and Oregon to stem the spread of the virus made it impossible for six Pac-12 teams in those states to practice football and slowed the conference’s return to play decision.

“Those barriers came down once the daily antigen test was available,” Schill said.

When the Pac-12 postponed its season on Aug. 11, its medical advisors had recommended daily testing for athletes because of high rates of community spread of the virus in most of the counties where schools were located. Those rates have improved in most Pac-12 counties, but not all.

“If this is not sustainable, we will stop playing,” Schill.

Daily testing should also decrease the number of athletes who end up in quarantine after coming into what would be considered a high-risk contact with someone who has tested positive.

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“Our goal is to not have a bunch of our student athletes get covid,” said Dr. Doug Aukerman of Oregon State.

There is still work to be done on that front, now in Colorado. Due to a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, Boulder County officials Thursday halted gatherings for college-aged residents for two weeks.

“We’ll continue to work with our public health officials to comply with the public health order and be a part of the community solution,” Colorado Athletic Director Rick George said. The one thing I’ve learned in this pandemic, is don’t get too high and don’t get too low.”

No fans will be permitted at Pac-12 sporting events taking place on campus, the conference said.

The loss of ticket revenue and decreased number of games will cost Pac-12 schools tens of millions of dollars, but it could have been even worse with no football at all.

“This has nothing to do with money,” Schill said. “It was never once mentioned as a consideration. The losses that are schools are encountering, in particular our athletic departments, are huge. The amount of money that will be saved as a result of going back to play is tiny in comparison with the losses.”

 


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