The Pac-12 has loosened its scheduling restrictions for the 2020 season and will allow nonconference football games to be played if they meet a certain criteria.
“The Pac-12 is committed to maintaining maximum flexibility to provide our football student-athletes with an opportunity to compete, while continuing to ensure that health and safety remains our number one priority,” commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.
The Pac-12 listed three stipulations that must be met for one of its teams to play a nonconference game.
Opponents must be able to meet the Pac-12 testing and related safety protocols for COVID-19, which includes once weekly PCR and daily antigen for each day of close contact athletic activity.
Pac-12 teams must be the host site and games must be broadcast by ESPN or Fox Sports — the conference’s television partners.
In the event a Pac-12 team schedules a nonconference game early in the week and a Pac-12 opponent becomes available by the end of the day Thursday of the same week, the Pac-12 will require a matchup between conference teams.
Colorado is the lone Pac-12 team without an opponent this week, after its game against Arizona State was canceled on Sunday. Last week, the conference paired California and UCLA on Sunday, after both school’s previously-scheduled games were canceled.
Colorado on Thursday issued a statement saying it would not look to schedule a nonconference opponent for this weekend, despite the Pac-12 ruling.