Pac-12 Considering Conference Only Football Games
Pac-12 is floating the idea of playing only league games.
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This could become a trend
A lot of options are being tossed around about how a 2020 college football season could occur. We did so in our most recent podcast going over a number of different scenarios.
One of those scenarios that was discussed was playing only conference games. That would mean the Mountain West would play all teams once and do an 11-game season and then a conference title game.
This is now gaining steam as USC head coach Clay Helton said that this is a position that the Pac-12 is considering playing a round-robin schedule.
This would create a big change for the upcoming schedule, especially if some conferences play their own teams while others want to play their full schedule.
This idea makes a lot of sense as it cuts down on travel and allows teams to bus more often than fly in most cases in the Pac-12 and other leagues.
The downside for the Mountain West and other Group of Five leagues is that they miss playing those Power Five teams. What is lost is the chance for a big upset but more importantly usually a seven-figure payday in the one-off or two-for-one series.
If the Pac-12 were to play only league games, below are the games that would be missed. A total of 13 games.
- Hawaii at Arizona
- California at UNLV
- Washington State at Utah State
- UCLA at Hawaii
- Colorado vs. Colorado State (Denver)
- Arizona State at UNLV
- New Mexico at USC
- Fresno State at Colorado
- Colorado State at Oregon State
- UCLA at San Diego State
- Utah at Wyoming
- Hawaii at Oregon
- Utah State at Washington
This would cause a scramble of games and maybe teams that have non-conference games vs. the Pac-12 could meet up against Mountain West teams. BYU, for example, plays three Pac-12 games so that could be an option that would make a good fit for the Cougars to add a few more Mountain West teams.
There could be some scheduling shuffling if leagues start to play conference only games.
