It’s official, college football is back. Well, Power-Five football at least. Thursday afternoon the Pac-12 CEO Group announced that they will resume the football, basketball, and other winter sports seasons.
This is based on the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee’s new recommendations, along with new state and local health guidance. All of those recommendations can be viewed here if you are curious to read more in depth.
According to Pac12.com, the football season will start on Nov. 6th, and consist of seven games with a Pac-12 Championship game slated to be played on Dec. 18th. This would make them eligible for consideration of the college football playoff, barring no setbacks. The football schedule should be released in the next few days.
The Big Ten made a similar decision to postpone their winter sports seasons, but recently just went back on that choice and will start their football season on Oct. 24th. After that, it was reasonable to believe the Pac-12 would follow suit.
Oregon’s president, Michael Schill, wanted to clarify that this choice was not about the money. The Pac-12 might not play a full season of football this year, but this definitely was a money motivated move.
Last year they spread out of $32 million to its schools from their media rights deals with FOX and ESPN. The College Football Playoff gives the Pac-12 a $66 million payout for playing in fall, and another $4 million if they compete in it.
Nonetheless, I am still excited to see Oregon, USC, Arizona State, and all the other Pac-12 schools compete this season. Hopefully we will see names like Penei Sewell, Jay Tufele, and Deommodore Lenoir opted back in for the 2020-21 college football season.
