SALT LAKE CITY — A day after the Big Ten’s announcement that it will only play conference football games this fall, the Pac-12 announced late Friday afternoon that it would follow suit.
In a conference call with reporters Friday morning, Utah athletics director Mark Harlan had said several options were possible if the Pac-12 did cut nonconference games. Besides playing just nine scheduled games, he said the league could consider a 10-game or 11-game revised schedule or a “plus-1” schedule, where schools would play nine conference games plus one nonconference game.
The latter, which would have included the possibility of a Ute game against BYU, is now a moot point.
With a league-only football schedule this fall, the University of Utah has three open dates to start the season if the schedule isn’t modified.
Gone are the annual rivalry game with BYU on Sept. 3, a home game against Montana State on Sept. 12 and a road game against old Skyline/WAC/Mountain West rival Wyoming on Sept. 19.
The season wouldn’t start until Sept. 26 with a game at Cal, followed by a Friday night home game against USC on Oct. 2. The Utes would have one bye week, Oct. 24 and play every week until the regular-season finale at Colorado on Nov. 28.
The Pac-12 didn’t offer any details Friday of whether the league-only schedule could be expanded to 10 games so every team has five home games and five road games or even play 11 games so that every school plays every opponent in the league.
If the Pac-12 goes with the 10-game schedule, it won’t simply be a matter of putting two teams not facing each other this year into an early-season slot.
Let’s use Utah as an example.
The two teams the Utes aren’t scheduled to play this year are Oregon and Stanford.
Like Utah, Oregon had its three nonconference games the first three weekends of September. However, Stanford’s schedule included a nonleague game against William and Mary on Sept. 5, then had games at Notre Dame on Oct. 10 and a home game against BYU on Nov. 28. Stanford is scheduled to play at Arizona on Sept. 12 and host USC on Sept. 19.
So Utah might be able to play Oregon or Stanford on the Sept. 5 weekend or Oregon one of the following two weeks.
Except for this problem. All three schools are scheduled to play just four league home games and five road games. So one of the teams would end up with four home games and six road games.
Then it gets complicated with several games needing to be moved around in order to give every school at least five home games.
The “plus-1” scenario would have allowed teams one extra nonleague contest, meaning the Utes might have played BYU, and USC and Stanford could have played their annual games against Notre Dame.
Not anymore.
With everything on the COVID-19 front a little uncertain right now, most leagues would probably rather begin as late as possible, and starting games on the Sept. 26 weekend would give everyone an extra three weeks of preparation and hopefully have the virus more under control.
It’s possible the Pac-12 will have to redo the entire schedule, especially if it modifies to a 10-game or 11-game schedule for all teams.
Besides the games against Cal Sept. 26, USC Oct. 2 and Colorado Nov. 28, Utah has games scheduled at Washington State Oct. 10, Washington Oct. 17, at UCLA Oct. 29, Arizona Nov. 7, Oregon State Nov. 14 and at Arizona State Nov. 21.