Bubble in Salt Lake City? At least one journalist believes so

With news breaking on Wednesday that the Pac-12 is looking at playing this fall, all sorts of ideas began to be thrown around, But one of the craziest at first might not seem so crazy now, a bubble in SLC...

If the Pac-12 conference elects to play college football this fall, it would signify a major turnaround from where the conference was just over a month ago.

On August 11, the Pac-12 announced that it would postpone/cancel all athletic events until Jan. 1. Then news broke yesterday that the conference — combined with the partnership with Quidel a few weeks ago — was going to try and play sometime around the end of October or early November.

While this may sound fantastic to coaches, players and fans alike, the question remains if it's feasible or not.

As of Thursday morning, California as a state is still a hotbed of COVID-19 cases, and where the four schools (Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA) all play are in two of the most most populated and "hot" areas. Oregon and Colorado are on fire, literally, which makes practicing safely a potential issue.

So if the conference really wants to play by Halloween or the week after, what are the realistic possibilities of that happening?

According to USC beat writer Matt Zemek of TrojansWire, he's come up with the idea of having the conference play in a bubble in Salt Lake City.

How can the Pac-12 play football? Give athletes hazard pay and health care... and send them to Salt Lake City https://t.co/QzlLRyiiRj

— USC Trojans Wire (@TrojansWire) September 16, 2020

Yes, that would provide a massive advantage for the Utes, but I'll bet it's something the opposing coaches and players would be willing to concede if it meant they get to strap up this fall.

“Provided that players can be given added protections and benefits, a bubble plan in Salt Lake City makes as much sense as any other plan I can think of for the Pac-12 and its football season this fall,” Zemek wrote.

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Twitter — @UtahUtes_SI and Ryan Kostecka at @Ryan_Kostecka