One day following the Big Ten’s announcement that they were going to play a conference-only football schedule in 2020, the Pac-12 announced that they would do the same.
The move was made due to the ongoing novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across the United States. Two of the states in the Pac-12 footprint, Arizona and California, are among several that have seen an uptick in cases over the last month.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports continues to be our number one priority,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our decisions have and will be guided by science and data, and based upon the trends and indicators over the past days, it has become clear that we need to provide ourselves with maximum flexibility to schedule, and to delay any movement to the next phase of return-to-play activities.”
With 12 teams playing three non-conference games each, that means that 36 scheduled non-conference contests will not be played during the 2020 season. Some of the prominent games canceled include USC vs. Alabama (in Arlington, Texas), Michigan at Washington, Houston at Washington State, and Ohio State at Oregon.
Most of the games will probably be rescheduled for future seasons, while a few could be canceled altogether.
Below is the complete list of canceled non-conference games in 2020 involving teams from the Pac-12. Guarantee payouts for the visiting team are listed in parentheses. If the game is part of a series, the other season is listed instead.
Week 0
California at UNLV (2022, 2025-26)
Hawaii at Arizona (2019)
New Mexico State at UCLA ($1.2 million)
Week 1
BYU at Utah (2019)
Northern Arizona at Arizona State ($500,000)
Oregon State at Oklahoma State (2019)
Washington State at Utah State (2021)
Colorado at Colorado State (2010-19)
Michigan at Washington (2021)
North Dakota State at Oregon ($650,000)
Portland State at Arizona ($550,000)
TCU at California (2021)
UCLA at Hawaii ($400,000)
USC vs. Alabama (in Arlington, TX)
William & Mary at Stanford ($625,000)
Week 2
Arizona State at UNLV (2021)
Cal Poly at California ($625,000)
Colorado State at Oregon State (2017)
Fresno State at Colorado ($600,000)
Houston at Washington State (2019)
Montana State at Utah ($675,000)
New Mexico at USC ($1.05 million)
Ohio State at Oregon (2021)
Sacramento State at Washington ($625,000)
Week 3
Arizona at Texas Tech (2019)
BYU at Arizona State (2021)
Colorado at Texas A&M (2021)
Hawaii at Oregon ($1 million)
Idaho at Washington State ($550,000)
Portland State at Oregon State ($400,000)
UCLA at San Diego State (2019)
Utah at Wyoming (2025)
Utah State at Washington ($1.5 million)
Week 6
Stanford at Notre Dame (annual series)
Week 13
BYU at Stanford (2022)
Notre Dame at USC (annual series)
What’s the plan for Notre Dame and other Independent schools?
If every Conference chooses Conference games only, what’s their plan?
I imagine the ACC will bail out Notre Dame, but what about the others?
It’d be nice to see most conferences adopt a team.
ACC-Notre Dame
Big Ten-UConn
AAC-Army
Pac12-BYU
MWC-New Mexico St.
CUSA-UMass
Sun Belt-Liberty
Notre Dame is a football-only independent and a full member of the ACC in all other sports.
The Big Ten AINT adopting UConn (MAC?) but that’s a great thought on the whole
Some players already got covid without playing a game let the play @#$% and the committee