As noted in a football thread, the Pac 12 has just announced that most fall sports are going to a conference match/ game only plan for the coming year (of course with a big IF competition can happen at all).
Of course I don't know if ANYONE really knows WHAT the frick is happening, and whether ANYTHING will be able to really be competed this fall, or even this coming academic year, but did anyways want to include some musings below assuming a "best case scenario". (Admittedly I'm driven by a hunger to see the beloved Buffs compete in ANY sport, but of course also don't want the players, coaches or staff to risk their health for my entertainment.)
1st, for when we might hear our next news from the conference, the end of the announcement quoted below says- "Details on Conference-only schedules will be announced no later than July 31."
Of note for the Olympic sports is that the announcement below does not even mention one Buff fall sport, cross country, at all. As a non-contact individual sport that typically doesn't have its 1st meaningful races until early October anyways, where a lot of the training can I assume be done relatively normally while social distancing, and typically only has 4-5 significant races a season, I'm GUESSING it may have been felt the Conference has time to decide what to do with that sport as the virus news/ situation develops without announcing any changes right now. (Assume we might hear something about that sport's plans by July 31st?)
On the team sport side, will be interesting to see WHAT might end up being scheduled. I've been GUESSING that these conference-only competition announcement(s) by the Big and Pac were mainly just a "clean" and simple way to delay the overall season a month or so (until very late in September or early October) to see if things improved, and that there may just be the normal number of conference matches. IF they did want to increase the number of conference competitions-
Anyways, for reference, here is the Pac 12 announcement-
Direct link to announcement - https://pac-12.com/article/2020/07/...on-schedule-conference-only-play-several-fall
Quoting the full (non-boilerplate part of the) announcement -
"
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 CEO Group announced today that the fall season for several Pac-12 sports, including football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball, would schedule Conference-only games, and that it is delaying the start of mandatory athletic activities, until a series of health and safety indicators, which have recently trended in a negative direction, provided sufficient positive data to enable a move to a second phase of return-to-play activities. The CEO Group made clear that it hopes to play football and all other fall sports provided that it can meet the health and safety needs of its student-athletes and obtain appropriate permissions from state and local health authorities. Today’s decision will result in the start dates for the impacted sports being delayed. The decision is effective immediately across all Pac-12 member universities and was made following a meeting of the Pac-12 CEO Group earlier today.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports continues to be our number one priority,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. “Our decisions have and will be guided by science and data, and based upon the trends and indicators over the past days, it has become clear that we need to provide ourselves with maximum flexibility to schedule, and to delay any movement to the next phase of return-to-play activities.”
"Competitive sports are an integral part of the educational experience for our student-athletes, and we will do everything that we can to support them in achieving their dreams while at the same time ensuring that their health and safety is at the forefront,” said Michael Schill, Pac-12 CEO Group Chair and President of the University of Oregon.
Pac-12 student-athletes who choose not to participate in intercollegiate athletics during the coming academic year because of safety concerns about COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarships honored by their university and will remain in good standing with their team.
The Pac-12 has developed a series of potential fall sport scheduling models including Conference-only schedules and delayed season starts. Details on Conference-only schedules will be announced no later than July 31.
...
"
Of course I don't know if ANYONE really knows WHAT the frick is happening, and whether ANYTHING will be able to really be competed this fall, or even this coming academic year, but did anyways want to include some musings below assuming a "best case scenario". (Admittedly I'm driven by a hunger to see the beloved Buffs compete in ANY sport, but of course also don't want the players, coaches or staff to risk their health for my entertainment.)
1st, for when we might hear our next news from the conference, the end of the announcement quoted below says- "Details on Conference-only schedules will be announced no later than July 31."
Of note for the Olympic sports is that the announcement below does not even mention one Buff fall sport, cross country, at all. As a non-contact individual sport that typically doesn't have its 1st meaningful races until early October anyways, where a lot of the training can I assume be done relatively normally while social distancing, and typically only has 4-5 significant races a season, I'm GUESSING it may have been felt the Conference has time to decide what to do with that sport as the virus news/ situation develops without announcing any changes right now. (Assume we might hear something about that sport's plans by July 31st?)
On the team sport side, will be interesting to see WHAT might end up being scheduled. I've been GUESSING that these conference-only competition announcement(s) by the Big and Pac were mainly just a "clean" and simple way to delay the overall season a month or so (until very late in September or early October) to see if things improved, and that there may just be the normal number of conference matches. IF they did want to increase the number of conference competitions-
- Soccer already had a largely*** natural type conference schedule where they play each other Pac school once each season. However, without non-conference, it will lose the largest % of its total matches/ games of any sport if there's only conference play and no conference matches are added, as last season 9 (or 45%) of its 20 total regular season matches were non-conference. (They also played 2 post-season NCAA tournament matches. ***Due to the odd number of conference foes, every Pac team always has one more or less HOME match in any individual season.)
- volleyball could pretty easily add a couple conference matches to its schedule IF conditions allow, as the normal Pac 12 schedule is typically slightly uneven, with the Pac 12 teams always playing 2 conference foes only one each season, while they play the remaining 9 teams twice. Even with a normal schedule, though, more of volleyball's schedule is typically within the conference (at least compared to soccer), with only 10 (or 33%) of the Buffs' 30 matches last season being non-conference.
Anyways, for reference, here is the Pac 12 announcement-
Direct link to announcement - https://pac-12.com/article/2020/07/...on-schedule-conference-only-play-several-fall
Quoting the full (non-boilerplate part of the) announcement -
"
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 CEO Group announced today that the fall season for several Pac-12 sports, including football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball, would schedule Conference-only games, and that it is delaying the start of mandatory athletic activities, until a series of health and safety indicators, which have recently trended in a negative direction, provided sufficient positive data to enable a move to a second phase of return-to-play activities. The CEO Group made clear that it hopes to play football and all other fall sports provided that it can meet the health and safety needs of its student-athletes and obtain appropriate permissions from state and local health authorities. Today’s decision will result in the start dates for the impacted sports being delayed. The decision is effective immediately across all Pac-12 member universities and was made following a meeting of the Pac-12 CEO Group earlier today.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports continues to be our number one priority,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. “Our decisions have and will be guided by science and data, and based upon the trends and indicators over the past days, it has become clear that we need to provide ourselves with maximum flexibility to schedule, and to delay any movement to the next phase of return-to-play activities.”
"Competitive sports are an integral part of the educational experience for our student-athletes, and we will do everything that we can to support them in achieving their dreams while at the same time ensuring that their health and safety is at the forefront,” said Michael Schill, Pac-12 CEO Group Chair and President of the University of Oregon.
Pac-12 student-athletes who choose not to participate in intercollegiate athletics during the coming academic year because of safety concerns about COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarships honored by their university and will remain in good standing with their team.
The Pac-12 has developed a series of potential fall sport scheduling models including Conference-only schedules and delayed season starts. Details on Conference-only schedules will be announced no later than July 31.
...
"