The Pac-12 announced its 10-game, conference-only football schedule in a Zoom press conference Friday afternoon.
The schedule features five home games, five road games, one bye week and an open week at the end of the regular season for any games that need to be rescheduled. The Pac-12 Championship is scheduled to be played on Dec. 18 or Dec. 19.
ASU will open the season with the Territorial Cup matchup at UA on Sept. 26. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott mentioned the flexibility, with Arizona being a current hotspot for COVID-19, of potentially moving the game to either the open week or a bye week.
UCLA and USC are also scheduled to play on the opening week of the schedule for similar reasons, with Los Angeles being another hotspot for COVID-19.
"We are going in contemplating that it is possible not all of our schools can start on Sept. 26," Scott said. "For those that can't, the way we have scheduled, particularly in these two markets, are very easily rescheduled to a bye week or to the December week, which is where you would find the traditional rivalry game, by the way."
ASU will host Stanford (Oct. 3), UCLA (Oct. 24), Utah (Nov. 7), California (Nov. 28) and Oregon State (Dec. 5). The team will travel to UA (Sept. 26), Oregon (Oct. 9), Colorado (Oct. 31), Washington State (Nov. 14) and USC (Nov. 21). The team's bye week comes on Oct. 17.
The Pac-12 Championship Game will be held at one of the participating schools instead of the originally scheduled site of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
ASU's schedule contains the same conference opponents as originally scheduled, with the addition of Stanford.
The conference has yet to announce guidelines for canceling or rescheduling games in the event of players testing positive for the coronavirus. The conference expects to have those guidelines before the 2020 season begins.
Scott did not specify whether fans would be allowed to attend games in 2020. Instead, he left fan attendance up to universities and public health officials.
"At the moment, we do not believe (attendance decisions) are a conference decision," Scott said. "We really feel it is appropriate for us to defer to public health authorities to determine that. We could have differences in the conference, but we are comfortable with that."
Scott left the door open for more schedule revisions once the season begins.
"No one can predict what is going to happen," Scott said. "We may not get ten games in. We are hopeful, cautiously optimistic, that we will. If we are not able to, we may wind up with certain teams playing less than 10 games. There are many, many scenarios still on the table."
ASU head coach Herm Edwards echoed the sentiment of the conference regarding the importance of the safety of those involved.
"I appreciate the diligence of Commissioner Larry Scott and all of the Pac-12 presidents and athletic directors in coming up with a plan that will allow us to play football this year," Edwards said in a press release. "The health, safety and welfare of our student-athletes, coaches, staff — anyone who touches our programs — will continue to be at the forefront as we attempt to navigate our way through the coming months."
Reach the reporter at ancoil@asu.edu and follow @anc2018 on Twitter.
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