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With California and Oregon in, Pac-12 aiming for late October start

Following the past 24 hours of news breaking, it appears the Pac-12 is finally coming to a consensus as sources have made it known the conference is now aiming for a late October start in college football
Ryan Kostecka|
With California and Oregon in, Pac-12 aiming for late October start
With California and Oregon in, Pac-12 aiming for late October start

We might be finally getting somewhere.

According to MULTIPLE sources, the past 24 hours have been huge in developments for the Pac-12 and a fall football season. 

Once the Big Ten announced it was beginning the fall college football season on the weekend of October 24, the dominoes began to fall in the Pac-12's favor. 

Finally, there may be light at the end of the tunnel as those same sources have indicated that the conference is now aiming at beginning its fall college football season at the end of October at the earliest, the same weekend as the Big Ten. 

At first it was a battle of words between Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and Governors Gavin Newsom (California) and Kate Brown (Oregon), each of which placed blame on one another as to why the Pac-12 can't resume football practices.

It was Scott who started the exchange of words when he said that the Pac-12 could not move forward with plans to play considering the states of California and Oregon had yet to clear college athletics to resume practices.

Newsom respond by reiterating California's government has never said teams couldn't practice, but that they could with up to a maximum of 12 participants at one time — which in the football world is useless.

Brown responded through her spokesperson Charles Boyle, who released a statement saying that Oregon and Oregon State have received exemptions to begin practices. 

"Governor Brown today is meeting with firefighters, first responders, and members of the incident management teams who have been on the frontlines working to save Oregonian lives and homes from the devastation of wildfires.
Representatives of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University athletic departments met with the Oregon Health Authority this afternoon to discuss their COVID-19 health and safety plans for their football teams. The universities have asked for an exemption to OHA's sports guidance, just as Oregon's professional sports team have been given. We have granted that request, and, under the new guidance, OHA must receive written plans for approval. (The full language of the guidance is below.)
Let me stress that, up to this point, we have received no written plans from the Pac12 for the upcoming season, and we have no details from the conference about their new rapid testing proposal. Until we have those details, we can't move forward in the process."

It was then Newsom's part to respond again, to which he is willing to grant exemption to the four California colleges (USC, UCLA, Stanford and Cal) who are wanting to return to the field,

Finally, the Pac-12 responded with it's own statement, stating how happy they are on behalf of the athletes who are that much closer to returning to action.

College football analyst Heather Dinich then dropped the biggest of bombs, stating that according to sources, the conference is aiming for a late October start at the earliest due to the change in course by California and Oregon.

"The best-case scenario is six weeks of practice training camp and start in the end of October, early November," Scott said Thursday morning "But that is still subject to county approvals which we don’t have yet. So that is the best case. And we’re going to do everything possible to play this fall if we can. Play a Pac-12 Championship Game and have teams compete for a College Football Playoff if it is possible."

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