Why does there need to be 6 weeks of practices to be ready for a game - wouldn't 4 weeks be sufficient?
Photo by © Kelley L Cox USA Today
Cal Football
With Big 10 Reportedly Ready to Play, Pac-12 Players Launch Appeals
The natives are getting restless.
The Big 10 is reportedly on the verge of reinstating football, with the hopes of starting a seven or eight-game season by mid-October. Although no official announcement has been made, many news outlets, including the Milwaukee Journal, are reporting the decision has been made.
Several Pac-12 football players, including Cal quarterback Chase Garbers, are urging the western league to do the same.
Aside from getting the university chancellors, presidents and medical staff to agree to start the season, the Pac-12 schools face another stumbling block. In California and Oregon, only limited al workouts are permitted under the states’ COVID protocols. Numerous appeals have been made to the governors to relax those restrictions. Proponents of staring the season are pointing to the agreement announced last week between the Pac-12 and Quidel Corporation, a diagnostic testing company, to provide COVID-19 antigen testing capabilities, with results available immediately. They are scheduled to be on campuses by the end of the month.
A group of USC players released an open letter to California governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday.
“The current reality is that there are too many restrictions imposed by state and local public health officials in California that prevent us from resuming practices and competition," the USC players' letter reads. "We cannot practice in groups larger than 12, we cannot gather as a team, and we cannot utilize any of our indoor facilities. From the onset of this pandemic, the Pac-12 has rightfully and responsibly maintained that their decisions would be based on science, and now it appears that the science and technology have turned in our favor of playing.
"Governor Newsom, our request of you is that you work with us -- urgently and purposefully -- to find a path forward for us to resume competitions later this fall so that we can have the same opportunity as other teams around the country to play for a national championship," the USC players' letter reads. "We respect the careful and cautious approach you have taken to college athletics, and we have the utmost confidence that we can partner together to quickly develop a plan that allows us to compete in a 2020 fall football season.
"Let's find a way to say 'Yes!' Please let us play."
Following that letter, some Oregon players, including receiver Mycah Pittman took to Twitter to plead their case. “Dear @pac12, I ask if you guys can give us players an option to opt in or out," Pittman said. "Display the risk of us playing this season and let us agree upon it. For you guys to take something away from me that I love so dearly it hurts and I had no option but listen. #WeWantToPlay”
Garbers, Cal’s starting quarterback, posted a Tweet of his own.
Of course, the Bears are ruled not only by the states’ protocols but also those of Alameda County and the city of Berkeley. They are even stricter than California’s and might be harder to get lifted.
The October start date would enable the Big 10 to play seven or eight games, hold a conference championship and still beat the College Football Playoff selection day. The consensus of the Pac-12 coaches is that they would require six weeks of practice prior to the season. Assuming the new tests are available by the end of the month, the earliest the league could start would be Nov 21, probably eliminating it from the playoffs.
Commissioner Larry Scott is talking about starting the season in January.
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