To account for its modified conference-only schedule, the new Pac-12 football slate has moved some huge rivalry games up on the calendar.
With the new schedule release, two major rivalry games are being moved from the end of the season to the start of it. Perhaps the biggest is the UCLA-USC game, originally slated for November 21, which is being moved to “Week 1” on September 26.
Two other massive games with Pac-12 title implications are being moved too. The Arizona-Arizona State game and Stanford-Washington games will also be contested on September 26 instead of in November.
That’s an incredibly top-heavy schedule to start the season. Stanford vs. Washington in particular is a game that could wind up being a Pac-12 title eliminator for the loser.
The 2020 Pac-12 season will consist of ten games over 11 weeks for each school. Its start will be pushed off by nearly a month, with camps currently set to open on August 17. All non-conference games are removed from the schedule.
The Pac-12 was one of the first conferences to announce it would be abandoning non-conference games as a response to the major restrictions on college football in 2020.
The full schedule provides for only one bye week per team, all occurring between Weeks 4 and 6, with teams that play each other in Week 1 sharing bye weeks, in case games need to be pushed back. Notably, there will be very few rivalry games during Week 11, the final week on the schedule. However, Utah vs. Oregon, a game that decided the Pac-12 North champion last year, will be.
Other notable rivalry games on the schedule include Oregon vs. Oregon State in Week 4, Washington vs. Washington State in Week 10, and USC vs. Cal in Week 2.
Per college football insider Brett McMurphy, the Pac-12 Championship Game will be held on a campus site, instead of Las Vegas’ new Allegiant Stadium, where it was scheduled to take place.
That’s an awful lot of change for a single year of Pac-12 football.