Pac-12 to release "aggressive" conference-only schedule

The Pac-12 is the going to be the first Power 5 conference to release a tentative conference only schedule.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has the scoop of what the 10-game conference schedule beginning in mid-September is going to look like.

The Pac-12’s football planning group, which includes athletic directors, coaches and directors of football operations, has been modeling conference-only schedules for months and is in regular contact with the conference’s coronavirus advisory committee.

Each school will play the other five schools in their division. They will then play five crossover games with the other division of the Pac-12, leaving one Pac-12 team off of the schedule for each of the schools.

Wilner wrote that the conference also has nine-game ready at a moment's notice if they need to shorten the season. No word on whether that's different from the regular nine-game conference schedule they were expected to play.

For the 10-game plan, the season openers would take place on Sept. 19, which would have been week three of the season.

This would give the virus more time to dwindle down in various states that are currently experiencing surges. It would also push the official start of fall camp back to mid-August.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported that several Pac-12 coaches told him they believe the start date needs to be pushed back even further.

Significant scoop from @wilnerhotline .. Sources have told me that several Pac-12 coaches said they think the start of this season needs to be delayed even later than this tentative date. https://t.co/Y7z7K7uJNz
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 23, 2020

The other important details which Wilner released involve two bye weeks (filler spots if games have to get moved) and the conference also gave themselves cushion to move games around at the end of the season.

The Pac-12 Championship game could be played in Las Vegas any of the three weekends between Dec. 4 and Dec. 12.

The full schedule is expected to be released sometime next week.