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The last of the P5 conferences has decided to play college football in 2020, as multiple media outlets are reporting the Pac-12 CEO’s have voted to start the season on November 6th, with a championship game either on December 18th or 19th.
Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has more details available here.
Source: The #Pac12 voted to play.
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) September 24, 2020
Pac-12 presidents/chancellors vote to play, beginning Nov. 6, sources told @Stadium. 1st reported by @wilnerhotline. Pac-12 has scheduled 8 p.m. ET news conference
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 24, 2020
Pac-12 season will begin Nov. 6, a source confirms. Everyone will play 7 games. Title game Dec. 18.
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) September 24, 2020
This is huge for the league, with many schools publicly admitting to financial difficulties because of the lack of games in the sport that drives the majority of their revenue. It’s speculating because it’s early, but a seven game schedule likely means teams will play their entire division as per usual, with two divisional crossover games each. That means how the dial gets spun by conference commissioner Larry Scott and his staff will be a major factor in who ends up competing in the title game.
The Pac-12 Championship was originally scheduled for the Las Vegas Raiders new home of Allegiant Stadium. Although the tweet above from Kyle Bonagura says the game will be on December 18th, Wilner says it will be December 19th. As of now, the Raiders are scheduled to face the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday Night Football on December 17th.