Checking in on the state of the Pac-12 2020 football season

I wrote the first morning link post at CougCenter exactly nine years ago today. I’ve written more than a thousand of them since then. During that time, I never thought there would be one about the college football season being cancelled.

The process during those nine years hasn’t changed much — outside of a coach name or two. Do a Google News search for “WSU football/basketball”, “Washington State football/basketball”, “WSU Cougars”, “Washington State Cougars”, “Nick Rolovich/Mike Leach/Paul Wulff/Kyle Smith/Ernie Kent/Ken Bone”, and finally “Pac-12”. Filter the results to the previous 24 hours and see what the Internet has for us that day.

Today, the Internet was not very kind. Let’s take a look at the results for that Pac-12 search:

COVID-19: The Cancellation of Fall Football is Coming Soon - It's Inevitable
The Mid-American Conference was the first in FBS to make the "miserable" decision

Sources -- Power 5 conferences talking about no fall football
Power 5 commissioners met to discuss canceling football and other fall sports, sources told ESPN.

College Football Season Teetering on Brink for Pac-12, All Power 5 teams
Conference commissioners scramble to get a sense of what everyone's thinking about proceeding with or postponing a fall season.

Decision Time for Pac-12 Football | Bear Insider
Fall season is no sure thing

Pac 12 expected to be first P5 to cancel football | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Pac 12 is expected to be the first Power 5 to cancel football as university presidents struggle to find a way to move forward amid COVID uncertainty.

Pac-12 likely to postpone football season
The cancellation of the Pac-12 season has become inevitable.

Yikes. That is the This is Fine meme version of link collection. The entire situation is moving very quickly so it’s possible those links look even worse by the next morning link post. As for what all this could mean for WSU, PJ dug into that yesterday.

Happy nine years of Hot Cougar Action, everyone.

*****

Football:

Pac-12 trap games during the 2020 season
Trap game: at Oregon State

Elliott's take: "Washington State’s trap game falls in Week 8 when the Cougars get on the road to play the Oregon State Beavers. The game comes after a brutal stretch of at Stanford, at USC, Arizona State, and right before the Apple Cup rivalry game against Washington."

COVID-19: The Cancellation of Fall Football is Coming Soon - It's Inevitable
The Mid-American Conference was the first in FBS to make the "miserable" decision

Sources -- Power 5 conferences talking about no fall football
Power 5 commissioners met to discuss canceling football and other fall sports, sources told ESPN.

College Football Season Teetering on Brink for Pac-12, All Power 5 teams
Conference commissioners scramble to get a sense of what everyone's thinking about proceeding with or postponing a fall season.

Decision Time for Pac-12 Football | Bear Insider
Fall season is no sure thing

Pac 12 expected to be first P5 to cancel football | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Pac 12 is expected to be the first Power 5 to cancel football as university presidents struggle to find a way to move forward amid COVID uncertainty.

Pac-12 likely to postpone football season
The cancellation of the Pac-12 season has become inevitable.