Pac-12 finalizing 10 game conference only schedule for 2020 season.

The USC Trojans will soon find out what their revised schedule will look like for the 2020 season. The Pac-12 is finalizing a 10 game conference only schedule per Jason Wilner of the Mercury news.

The Pac-12 is expected to have an official announcement with weekly matchups by the end of next week. The conference is aiming for a September 19th start with bye weeks built around the possibility of postponements if the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t improve. In regards to the Pac-12 Championship game, that is currently scheduled to be played on December 4th. However, if the season was to be postponed then the game could be played on December 11th-12th or 18th-19th to allow for games to be made up.

As of now the conference is moving forward with playing football in the fall and a delayed start buys time to observe the situation with the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately everyone’s situation is very different and it will be dependent if the health officials allows it and where each university is at in regards to even allowing students to come on campus for classes.

Back on July 10th the Pac-12 canceled all non-conference games and opted to stick with a conference only schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision came on the heels of the Big Ten making the same decision by moving to a conference only model.

For USC, the move to a conference only model meant the cancelation of their season opening meeting with Alabama in Arlington, Texas as well as their annual rivalry game with Notre Dame. This will be the first time since 1945 that the Fighting Irish and Trojans didn’t play each other. Per the current schedule USC was set to play Stanford on September 19th, which could very well still take place. They were also slated to face Washington and Oregon this season, however that could possibly change to accommodate the Trojans new schedule with the addition of another Pac-12 North team to round out the schedule.

USC still status for the fall is still up in the air with Los Angeles being a COVID-19 hot spot and cases growing by the day. Everyone is hoping that a delayed start could by time for the curve to flatten again and allowing the conference to play football. But, with most conferences canceling fall sports, that perspective is not looking good at the moment.