With a little over two weeks until UCLA Football returns to the field, the Pac-12 conference has announced its scheduling protocols for the football season.
UCLA Football will finally return to the field at the beginning of November to take part in a six-game regular season conference-only slate.
Given the short season, the Pac-12 announced on Monday their scheduling protocols for the football season, including plans of action for conference tiebreakers and game cancellations.
Of the most notable of the protocols is a new rule for the 2020 season, entailing that teams only need 53 available scholarship players, a large dropoff from the usual maximum allotment of 85. Pac-12 teams must submit a list of players available before each game, which is standard protocol.
The most notable omission in the list of protocols is the conference’s plan of action in case of a COVID-related cancellation. The schedule is a tight six-week format, with no bye weeks, including the conference championship, which is scheduled for the seventh week of the season.
In other words, the Pac-12 has its fingers crossed that everything will go perfectly this season, something that other conferences have had a problem with. The Big-12 and ACC have seen a number of game cancellations, as has the SEC, with last week’s outbreak at the University of Florida.
The final major note in the list of protocols is that the Pac-12 Championship game matchup will be determined by the two teams with the top winning percentages, meaning that two teams in the same divison could end up facing off.
While there is still a little bit of time before the Pac-12 will return to the field, the conference and teams alike will certainly have their fingers crossed for an issue-free lead up to the season, a season that looked unlikely all the way up to last month.