The Pac-12 is exploring all available options. That was evident on Monday in a scheduled webinar video conference featuring three of its head football coaches.
Clay Helton broke the news. The USC coach revealed that playing an 11-game, conference-only schedule was on the table. Said Helton, “Those are viable discussions and it has been brought up in our meetings.”
Don’t know about you, but I was just thrilled to hear football coaches talk about playing football. Nick Rolovich of Washington State and Stanford’s David Shaw were also included in the webinar. “Rolo” brought a stuffed cougar nicknamed Sharon. And I was glad the conference put on the event, because cure aside, what people need right now is some hope.
A Pac-12 exclusive schedule in 2020 is essentially an escape hatch for the conference. It’s not ideal. But what is these days? That model would allow the members to play games and earn revenue -- potentially amid a coronavirus pandemic that had other parts of the country shut down. And that’s how this discussion must be framed.
Washington State, for example, is located in Whitman County -- population 50,000 or so. As of Monday, the county had only 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths. They’re feeling fortunate. But also, have to be wondering why it wouldn’t be safe to install careful prevention protocols, hold practices and play games.
Los Angeles County is a much different story. The county is home to USC’s campus and has 32,258 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,500 dead. And Shaw works and lives in Santa Clara County -- with 2,341 confirmed cases and 129 deaths. As much as we’d like to have a single answer that works for all of college football, it won’t happen. Because even in the Pac-12 the stories are varied.
Coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents?
LA County: 321.
Whitman County: 30.
We learned on Monday that eliminating non-Pac-12 games, installing testing protocols, removing fans, and narrowing the geographical footprint of where games would be played is on the table. The conference-only suggested model would allow for different conferences to start the season at different times.
For now that idea flies.
Universities across the Pac-12 are busy sorting through the logistics of how they might get tens of thousands of students safely on campus in the fall for courses. They don’t have a choice. Higher education has been defunded by state to the point where not having courses leaves them out of business.
It’s why Gov. Kate Brown’s recent comments about Phase 1 of the return to normal life fell flat for some. Gov. Brown suggested that large events, including sporting events through the end of September, should be canceled or modified.
Maybe she was just establishing some expectations, but kickoff for Oregon-Ohio State was still four months away.
Said one prominent UO source: “I would argue that (Gov. Brown) has very little if any input given the aforementioned. I believe the funding may be enough to cover being part of a public system. Bottom line it doesn’t help cover any operating costs. The schools have to open in the fall.”
A faculty member at Oregon told me that UO is exploring a split schedule, where half the students in a Tuesday-Thursday class would meet in person on Tuesday and the other half would join via video conference. Then, on Thursday, the groups would flip flop.
I like that the football brains are thinking outside the box, too.
A Pac-12 exclusive schedule in 2020 comes with some problems. The financial hit could include some costly contract buyouts for existing opponents. The model could have bowl-game ramifications, too. Shaw brought up the College Football Playoff, wondering, too, how that might factor.
It’s a good question for the head of the system, Bill Hancock. But given that the Pac-12 hasn’t participated in the playoff in three of the last five seasons, I don’t think being excluded is a deal breaker. Right now, the Pac-12 is trying to find a way to play games, worst-case scenario. Being left out of the national conversation again? We’ve sort of come to expect that, no?
It was painful in spots during the video conference to watch three good football minds tip-toe around questions related to COVID-19 that were better suited for an epidemiologist. What’s the timeline? How do see this unfolding? Like Dr. Anthony Fauci likes to say, “The virus gets to decide.”
So all I really came away with on Monday was hope.
That was enough, too.
The Pac-12 would like very much to have a vaccine in place, the disease squashed, and the world back to something resembling normal. That aside, it’s working like the rest of us to make the best of a troubling development. Small business owners have adapted. Droves of people are working productively from home. Trail Blazers president Chris McGowan told me recently that he’s watching the rollout of Bundesliga, the German top-flight soccer league. It returns this weekend, without fans.
If the German footballers pull it off, and gobble up new marketshare, expect more leagues to follow.
Major League Baseball owners need to play games. So do most of the NBA franchises, albeit, the non-playoff contenders are looking at the damaged financial models without fans in the arenas and wondering what the point is. And the NFL teams are busy preparing as though they’re going to play this season.
The Pac-12 is not the SEC or even the Big Ten. That point is underscored by the smaller stadium sizes, the lack of unhinged fans, and ultimately, the revenue shortfall. The university presidents and chancellors seem to be at peace with it, and have embraced tennis, golf, track, women’s basketball, swimming and volleyball and other non-revenue generating sports on a level that would never fly in SEC country.
A conference-only schedule would be welcome framed by that.
Oregon and Oregon State vs. each other? And also, 10 other Pac-12 teams? Sign me up. Sure. Because some of us had already wrapped our heads around the possibility that games might not be played at all. Or that the season would be delayed until spring. We’re on new ground, after all.
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