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Pac-12 Postpones All Sports for the Remainder of 2020

In a vote that took place Tuesday morning, the Pac-12 CEO group voted unanimously that they would be suspending all sports for the remainder of the calendar year.

This postponement relates to all sports that were scheduled to start prior to 2021, which includes soccer, football and the beginning of the 2020-2021 college basketball season.

“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is.”

The commissioner also mentioned that if conditions were to improve by January 1, 2021, they would consider resuming play and shifting some fall sports into the spring months.

In regards to the student-athletes themselves, all Pac-12 scholarship athletes will be able to hold their scholarships and attend class at their respected universities this fall.

Additionally, the Pac-12 is encouraging the NCAA to grant any Pac-12 athlete an extra year of eligibility, should they choose to opt-out during this academic year.

Ultimately, the league’s medical advisory group did not feel as it was safe for sports to be played for the remainder of the year as they had “concerns that many of its current recommendations cannot be achieved consistently across all universities at this point in time,” the advisory group released in a statement.

“Currently, the availability of frequent, FDA-approved, accurate testing with rapid turn-around time vary at each of the Pac-12 institution locations. In addition, in many locations within the Conference, community test positivity rates and number of cases per 100,000 in the surrounding community exceed levels which infectious disease and public health officials deem safe for group sports.”

Commissioner Scott also said that the conference had even looked into a bubble situation at one point but due to logistics and health concerns, the idea fell on deaf ears.

The Pac-12 now joins the Big Ten in postponing their fall football seasons, creating a 2/5 split in the Power 5. However, the Big 12, ACC and SEC have each come out with a statement saying they still plan on participating in fall sports.

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Peter Snyder is an Intern sportswriter who covers collegiate athletics as well as professional sports.
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