Reports: Pac-12 football shooting for Nov. 7 start date
With the Pac-12 CEO's scheduled to meet later Friday, multiple reports are coming out that the conference is looking at beginning its fall college football season the weekend of November 7.
This is contradicting to reports that surfaced earlier in the week that the conference was originally looking starting the season on Halloween — although Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott isn't completely ruling it out.
“If we’re going to move forward, it’s going to depend on how quickly we can get back to practice," Scott said. "Six weeks would be from Monday (to be ready for a Halloween time start), but we’re only getting these rapid tests next week, so I think that would be the most ambitious, maybe a week or two too quick for us. But somewhere in that zip code is where we would be playing if we’re playing."
There are still a number of obstacles remaining if the Pac-12 is to start on that date, most notably receiving approval from the league CEO's to start.
Coaches have also reiterated that they need at least six weeks to prepare — five for training and one for preparation. If that is to happen, the programs would all need to begin practices on Monday — and not to mention some teams don't even have all of their players on campus right now.
For example, Utah has had its players on campus and have stayed practicing and training since the cancellation on August 11. Meanwhile Stanford doesn't have its players on campus — and upon returning to campus they would need to quarantine for five days.
With that in mind, and considering the Quidel testing machines won't be arriving in campus until the end of September, a Nov. 7 start date is much more realistic than a Halloween start date.
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