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Has there ever been more anticipation for a previously scheduled meeting among the Pac-12 CEO group than Friday’s? If so, the next one will probably garner more anticipation.
The CEO group met Friday and, while we don’t know many details of the meeting (until someone leaks them to John Canzano), we do know they’ll reconvene next Thursday, Sept. 24 and will decide the fate of fall sports in the conference then. So any angst will have to settle in until then.
As you know, the Pac-12 announced last month that it would hold off on any sports before Jan. 1. This, of course, has changed recently, mostly due to the Big Ten announcing a start date after it originally plowed a similar path as the Pac-12. With college basketball also looking at a day-before-Thanksgiving start date, that also forced the Pac-12 to re-think things.
As it stands, should the league announce next Thursday to hold a football season* it will likely be only six games. Is that enough to convince the College Football Playoff committee? Is it even worth playing six games? What about those players across college football who signed with agents, assuming there’d be no college football season?
*As Emma pointed out yesterday, the fates of volleyball and soccer (and cross country) aren’t clear yet. I’d assume those sports are good to go should football play games. We’ll see.
So, why wait until Sept. 24? Maybe blame the health officials in the Bay Area, according to Jon Wilner:
Pac-12 update: Stanford and Cal making progress toward approval with local health officials, but it could take a few days - not as clean as the change in L.A. County for the Bruins and Trojans
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) September 18, 2020
There’s a lot of details to work out. Hopefully the Pac-12 has it all settled one way or another in five days.
In the meantime, I had a good chuckle at this:
SOURCES: the pac 12 scheduling holdup is centered around securing oregon a bye before the washington game
— Wilbur (RIP Pac12, #1 Rice Fan) (@wilburhookshand) September 18, 2020
That’s a joke, for you gullible types.
Brian Green brings in the 29th-best recruiting class
Woo!
More praise for the Cougs!
— Washington State Baseball (@wsucougarbsb) September 19, 2020
Our 2020 recruiting class has been ranked No. 2️⃣9️⃣ in the country and No. 6️⃣ in the Pac-12 by @CBNewspaper
https://t.co/XLGTCw7bl7#GoCougs | #BeUncommon pic.twitter.com/ZB0wefVCZJ
Marty Lees’ 2016 class was ranked no. 28 and his 2019 class was no. 32. Let’s hope Green can get more mileage out of his recruits.
2020 Recruiting Class Ranked No. 29 in the Country - Washington State University Athletics
The Cougars class is ranked No. 29 in the country and sixth-best in the Pac-12 Conference.
Links
Washington State mailbag: On the ramp-up to the (potential) Pac-12 season and recent Cougar transfers | The Spokesman-Review
In what could be one of the last non-football season editions of the WSU mailbag, I break down how the Cougars and other teams would "ramp up" to the potential 2020 fall season, and examine why six WSU players have entered the transfer portal in just over a month's time.
Report: Pac-12 targeting Halloween start for 2020 football season | The Spokesman-Review
When the week began, the concept of a late-starting Pac-12 football season still appeared to be a long shot, even though the conference’s recent partnership with American testing manufacturer Quidel Corp.was considered a major breakthrough.
Pac-12 CEOs to decide on season start Thursday; would be before Jan. 1
While it was not expected but not ruled out, the Pac-12 CEO Group did not vote on a plan for how to start its football season during a Friday meeting and instead says it will make a decision by Thursday.