GETTY Kenny Wooten #14 of the Oregon Ducks is introduced before the championship game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament against the Washington Huskies at T-Mobile Arena on March 16, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Shortly after Big 10 commissioner Kevin Warren made the official announcement that the conference would be postponing its football season to the spring, the Pac-12 followed suit.
Less than an hour after official reports came out that the Big 10 was cancelling their fall plans, more reports were released ahead of a 4:30 p.m. ET announcement from the Pac-12, saying that the conference is also postponing their season to the spring of 2021.
While neither the Big 10 or the Pac-12’s postponements are especially surprising after the Mid-American Conference announced they would not be playing in the fall last week, the two decisions appear to be the next dominos to fall as the NCAA and its respective members attempt to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and what college football will look like during it.
PAC-12 Players Uniting
The conference has been under the spotlight as of late, due to the fact that the conference had an array of players from varying schools join together in protest over the conditions of student-athletes as well as concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus.
The group then met with Scott over a phone call to discuss potential changes and demands, which apparently went poorly from their perspective, per a letter sent from the group to the Pac-12 commissioner.
“We were all left disappointed and deeply concerned that you are not taking this matter seriously. We were all left disappointed and deeply concerned that you are not taking this matter seriously… You [Scott] claimed necessary tests were ‘unavailable’ and that it would be ‘impossible’ to mandate testing and best practice COVID precautions conference wide.”
The letter went on to state that the players speaking and the ones they represent want to play, but the concerns over treatment and safety were too large to ignore.
“We love the communities we compete for. But, we are afraid of the potential ramifications of athletes playing sports before it is adequately safe enough to do so. That is why during our meeting with you yesterday our deepest fear is the Pac-12’s negligent return to play may result in a member of our Pac-12 family dying due to COVID-19.'”
State of the 2020 College Football Season
As mentioned, the postponement of the Big 10 and Pac-12 seasons came after the Mid-American Conference’s announcement to postpone, which was the first FBS conference to forego a fall season, which then led to fellow Group of 5 conference Moutain West to announce the same.
With four FBS conferences out of play for the fall of 2020, it leaves Power-5 conferences Big 12, SEC and ACC remaining, as well as the American, Sun Belt and Conference-USA as the remaining conferences that have not postponed or cancelled a 2020 season.
The remaining conferences have released adjustments, rules and new schedules as the chance for non-conference games became more and more unlikely, with conferences like the SEC going to a full 10-game conference-only schedule.
However, with two major conferences now done for the fall of 2020, the question of whether any NCAA Division 1 football will be played grows more and more prominent.
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Evan Reier is a sportswriter covering the San Francisco 49ers for Heavy.com and local sports for the Montana Standard in Butte, Mont. Reach out to him on Twitter at @evanreier and join our 49ers community at Heavy on 49ers on Facebook.