Pac-12 Dropped the Ball; Oregon, California Governors Say Door has been Open for CFB

Photo by: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Big Ten announced a plan to return to college football and rapid-response testing for COVID-19 this week. Now, there’s only one Power Five Conference left not planning to play football: the Pac-12.

Obviously, the pandemic continues to rage on, and now wildfires have run rampant the last few weeks. However, when it comes to COVID-19, the Pac-12 announced rapid-response testing weeks before the Big Ten did.

So, what stopped the Pac-12 from acting sooner?

Our own John Canzano answers, Larry Scott.

On Wednesday, Oregon governor Kate Brown opened the door for Oregon and Oregon State to return to play, but there’s still work to be done from the Pac-12.

Brown’s spokesperson, Charles Boyle, put it plainly on Wednesday, “Let me stress that, up to this point, we have received no written operating procedures for approval from the Pac-12 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.” Full statement at the bottom of this post.

Meanwhile, California governor Gavin Newsom denied he was standing in the way of Pac-12 football returning.

Gov. Gavin Newsom just said that there is nothing keeping Pac-12 universities from playing football games in California.

“Nothing in the state guidelines denies the ability for the Pac-12 to resume,” he said. “That’s been a misrepresentation of the facts.”

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) September 16, 2020

So, the Big Ten will start football in just over a month (Oct. 23/24). If they play, when will the Pac-12 begin? We don’t know.

Forgetting the pandemic for a moment, what about player readiness? Well, Yahoo Sports Pete Thamel says some schools haven’t been working out or lifting for weeks. Canzano’s sources think players could be ready sooner than Thamel’s sources.

Eight weeks is too generous. It’s a fair point about being in football shape… that takes time… but several Pac-12 coaches I spoke with felt their players could be ready in 4-5 weeks after arriving back on campus. https://t.co/IlIK0i0Y4W

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) September 17, 2020

For other Pac-12 teams, specifically USC and UCLA, they also received approval to start preparing for a season once the conference decides to return to action.

Breaking: #USC #UCLA athletic directors join forces, get approval needed from L.A. County to begin practicing once Pac-12 signs off on return-to-play. This is big for a Halloween restart, folks.https://t.co/VGJ1ZaK6Zy

— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) September 17, 2020

Full statement from Charles Boyle.

Statement from Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s spokesperson Charles Boyle here: pic.twitter.com/rPn0G1dhti

— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) September 16, 2020

Full statement from Gavin Newsom

Here are Gov. Newsom’s full comments related to the Pac-12, which leave a lot of questions unanswered. pic.twitter.com/3V3CHrgwjX

— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) September 16, 2020

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