Report: Pac-12 Planning Conference-Only Schedule, Delayed Opener

The Pac-12 plans to begin the 2020 season on Sept. 19, which was originally set to be Week 3.

The Pac-12 is planning to enact a 10-game, conference-only schedule in 2020, according to the Bay Area News Group's Jon Wilner. 

If the Pac-12 finalizes its plan, it will join the Big 10 among the Power 5 conferences to solely play conference games in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The SEC, ACC and Big-12 are looking to play all conference games plus at least one non-conference opponent.

“[The Pac-12] wants to be as flexible as possible, so they aren’t eliminating the nine-game option,” a source told Wilner.

The Pac-12 is expected to kick off the 2020 season on Sept. 19, which would have marked Week 3 of the season under its original schedule. At least two bye weeks are in the preliminary 2020 schedule, "creating windows for games that cannot be played as scheduled," according to Wilner. 

The 2020 Pac-12 title game will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. It is currently scheduled to be held on Dec. 4, but the contest could be pushed back multiple weeks if the season is delayed. 

More than 3.9 million people in the United States have been infected with COVID-19, leading to more than 143,000 deaths.