Some information in this story comes from a Pac-12 release:
The Pac-12 announced today that the fall season for several sports, including football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball, would schedule conference-only games in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pac-12 also stated 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 conference 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.
Arizona’s non-conference schedule affected for football:
Hawaii (Aug. 29) and Portland State (Sept. 5) at Arizona Stadiuam and at Texas Tech (Sept. 19).
The Wildcats’ Pac-12 opener is tentatively scheduled Sept. 12 against Stanford at Arizona Stadium.
The women’s soccer and volleyball teams do not have their 2020 schedules posted on Arizona’s Web site.
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.
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.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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