Pac-12 CEO's to meet on Friday with big decision on the horizon
Back on August 11, the Pac-12 CEO's dropped a bomb on coaches, players and fans alike when it announced that it the it was cancelling all athletic events until Jan. 1 at the earliest.
That meant no football, basketball, women's soccer, women's volleyball or any other fall sport.
Oh how quickly the times change.
Over the past 48 hours, news has been coming from everywhere that the Pac-12 is now reconsidering the Jan. 1 start date, with football possibly beginning at the end of October and basketball beginning the day before Thanksgiving.
The latest development is that the Pac-12 CEO's — those in charge of making decisions for the conference — are meeting on Friday to discuss the return of football and basketball prior to that Jan. 1 date.
This is huge news considering what took place in Oregon and California over the previous 36 hours. Both states previously were restricting athletes and coaches from practicing, but that is now old news.
According to Jon Wilner of the Mercury News in California, both USC and UCLA have joined forces to get and gain approval from L.A. County to resume practices. This follows on the heels of Governors Gavin Newsom (California) and Kate Brow (Oregon), giving their respective colleges the exemptions needed to resume practices and games.
With the approval of their respective Governor's, each of the conference's 12 schools have been cleared to resume practices. This puts an October 24 start date — the same as the Big Ten — as a real possibility moving forward.
Following the news from the two governors, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott released his own statement.
”The Pac-12 welcomes today's statements by Governor Newsom of California and Governor Brown of Oregon that state public health officials will allow for contact practice and return to competition. and that there are no state restrictions on our ability to play sports in light of our adherence to strict health and safety protocols and stringent testing requirements, including our recent, announced partnership with Ouidel which will enable daily rapid results testing. We appreciate Governor Newsom, and Governor Brown's support, the former of which is consistent with the very productive conversation that he and I had earlier today. Our California and Oregon universities will now each individually and immediate, reach out to their relevant county public health officials to seek clarification On what is required to achieve the same clearance to resume contact practice and competition. We are eager for our student-athletes to have the opportunity to play this season, as soon as it can be done safely and in accordance with public health authority approvals."
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