The Pac-12 already announced that it will play a conference-only schedule for the 2020 college football season. That being said, it’s fair to wonder if even those games will take place this fall.
On Tuesday, the University of California announced that it’s fall semester will be completely remote – to start, anyway. This is due to rising COVID-19 cases in Alameda county and the entire state.
“The increase in cases in the local community is of particular concern. Given this development, as well as it being unlikely that there will be a dramatic reversal in the public health situation before the fall semester instruction begins on Aug. 26, we have made the difficult decision to begin the fall semester with fully remote instruction,” UC Berkeley said in a statement. “However, we continue our preparations to implement hybrid and/or flexible modes of instruction as soon as public health conditions allow.”
Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press believes this is a bad sign for the Pac-12, tweeting “Not great.” It’s definitely going to raise questions as to whether or not Cal student-athletes should be playing sports while the rest of the university is off campus.
Cal isn’t the only school in the Pac-12 embracing online courses for the fall. The majority of undergrad classes at USC will be online due to the coronavirus.
There is so much uncertainty surrounding fall sports. Some conferences have canceled fall sports, such as the Ivy League and MEAC.
We’d all love to see college football this fall, but there are serious health concerns at the moment. One thing is for sure, Cal’s decision to go online for the upcoming semester isn’t a great sign for the Pac-12.