College football fans in the Northwest can rejoice. Some of their teams will apparently grace the gridiron later this fall.
The Pacific-12 athletic conference, which includes Washington State and Washington, has announced that its teams will play football this fall, after all. The season had been cancelled because of the risks of players spreading Covid to other players.
The conference medical committee says teams can resume competing when antigen tests are available on each campus. It says frequent testing for athletes in contact sports will improve doctors’ abilities to detect the virus, isolate those who test positive and keep the other team members safe.
The Pac-12 was the last of the major college conferences to decide to play. But when the Big 10, which also initially cancelled its season, recently decided to resume, the Pac-12 decided to go along.
Conference officials have announced the season will start the weekend of November 6, two months later than normal. Instead of the usual 12 games, teams will play seven times and only against fellow conference teams. No fans will be in the stands. The schedule will be released soon.
The conference also announced the basketball season will begin November 25, only a couple of weeks later than in normal years.