The Pac-12 plans to lean into its greatest asset when it comes to playing football this fall, according to two athletic directors who addressed the issue publicly in the past 48 hours.
“Time is the most important variable that we have,” Washington State’s Pat Chun said during a video conference Friday.
“The scheduling models we are looking provide us some time, as well as the decision to delay the start of fall sports.”
The schedule model expected to be released next week will feature flexibility on both ends, giving the conference the best possible chance to produce a legitimate season.
As the Hotline reported Thursday, the model calls for 10 conference games, season openers on Sept. 19, multiple bye weeks and options for the Pac-12 championship.
The title game in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas could be as early as Dec. 4 and as late as the weekend of Dec. 18-19, thereby providing additional windows at the end of the regular schedule for makeup games.
Meanwhile, Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke said on Wednesday that he wants to “exhaust every ounce of possibilities” for the fall.
In theory, the conference could delay the start of the season until late October and still play eight games before the championship weekend on Dec. 18-19.
But that approach would require patience on the part of the presidents and positive news in the fight to contain coronavirus.
“When is the exact time (for a decision)? What is the date? I don’t have that answer, because the environment changes day-to-day,” Chun said.
“But we’ve made decisions and we’ve built models that allow us time, and hopefully we can see those models through.”
Chun said he is “cautiously optimistic” about football this fall and pointed to the relatively low numbers of positive tests among Pac-12 athletes (compared to other conferences).
Chun added that he feels “great” about the prospect of WSU having fall sports, partly because “we’re isolated here.”
At the southern end of the conference, Heeke told ‘Eye on the Ball‘, a Tucson radio show, that he’s optimistic about a fall season — and that the conference hasn’t seriously considered playing in the spring.
“This scheduling thing is focused on the fall,” he said. “We want this to happen in the fall.
“We have not entertained a spring schedule, really. That’s always there. It’s kind of up on the shelf. We know it’s there and we can move to it, but let’s exhaust every ounce of possibilities for the fall.”
Heeke said a key factor in the pivot to a conference-only schedule was the ability to “ensure consistent testing … The best way to create the absolute safest environment was to control it with a conference-only schedule.”
He also spoke candidly about the challenges of keeping the players healthy in campus environments full of distractions and high-risk interactions — like Greek Row.
“If we want to play, if they want to participate in the things that they love, there’s a responsibility that they need to exhibit, there’s accountability, there are things they have to do,” Heeke said.
“They have to accept a different lifestyle if they want that. If they’re unwilling to do that, this is not going to work. If fraternities or sororities or people want to go out and do things and not think about the greater good, it’s not going to work. We’re going to close down schools.”
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