The Pac-12 will kick off its 2020 football season on Nov. 6 and its basketball season on Nov. 25 after the conference’s presidents voted on Thursday, Sept. 24, to resume play, according to ESPN.
The Pac-12 also announced its seven-game football schedule for each team, expected to be played in a seven-week span with the Pac-12 championship game being played on Dec. 18, according to ESPN. Similar to the Big Ten, the Pac-12 will have a cross-division seeded game as its seventh game which will be played on the weekend of the conference title game, according to Brett McMurphy of Stadium. The Pac-12 basketball season will begin the week of Thanksgiving.
On Aug. 11, the Pac-12 had initially voted to cancel all athletic competitions until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But plans had drastically changed when the rest of the power-five conferences continued on with its seasons.
The conference feels it is poised for a successful season after its partnership with Quidel Corporation, which allows the Pac-12 to perform daily testing with instant results on all of its players, coaches and staff members.
“This is a major step toward the safe resumption of Pac-12 sport competitions,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement on Sept. 3 following the partnership. “The availability of a reliable test that can be administered daily, with almost immediate results, addresses one of the key concerns that was expressed by our medical advisory committee, as well as by student-athletes, coaches and others. At the same time, our partnership with Quidel, the industry leader in point-of-care antigen testing, will provide crucial research data that will benefit our members’ communities as well as the entire country.”
We will have more updates as this story continues to develop.
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