Dots: What a Difference a Day Makes

Pac-12 Football Dots

Yesterday may well have been one of the fastest moving news cycles I’ve ever seen. We started the day with the Big 10 announcing it would return to play on October 23rd which led me to write the following article. From there here’s a brief summary of the rapid chain of events. Or if you want to read a summary from Christian Caple (and who wouldn’t prefer that over reading me if we’re being honest) you can just click on this link.

• Larry Scott reiterated that the onus for restarting the Pac-12 was on the governors of California and Oregon giving permission for college programs to gather in large enough groups to practice.
• Oregon governor Kate Brown said she would be willing to let the Beavers and Ducks return to play as soon as they received a written proposal with the details for the new testing plan and as of then they had not heard a single official word from the Pac-12 about it.
• California governor Gavin Newsom was interviewed and said that college games are perfectly legal in California and the Pac-12 can resume as soon as they want and he spoke to Larry Scott about it a few hours ago.
• Jon Wilner spoke to a California public health official who confirmed that games in California are allowed but that teams still couldn’t practice with more than 12 people at a time with no contact allowed. They did not see a problem with this and suggested teams practice by walkthrough, virtual reality, or playing 5v5 or 11vAir.
• Both the California and Oregon governors officially lifted any state level restrictions on practicing/playing games which opened up the door for a potential late October season start. However, at least in California teams would still need permission at the county level.

• USC and UCLA met with L.A county officials to get approval to begin practicing as soon as the Pac-12 gives the go-ahead.

Washington Football Dots

• Caple partnered with Oregon’s beat writer to compare the relative talent level of each program. Luckily, the comments section of a joint UW/Oregon article are a place of peace and harmony...
• Miami’s beat writer at The Athletic wrote about how Myles Gaskin suddenly became the featured back in the Dolphins back field last week.
• Washington CB Myles Bryant was a standout as a UDFA in Patriots training camp and after initially being assigned to the practice squad he’s been called up to the 53-man roster in advance of their game in Seattle on Sunday night. Congrats to Myles!

• If the Pac-12 can’t get its s*** together then Sean McGrew has a backup plan

• Some new edits by the recruiting staff for 2022 targets

Basketball Dots

• The NCAA announced that the season will officially start on November 25th this year (the day before Thanksgiving). Given the timing being bandied about for a restart to football, it seems likely that Pac-12 basketball would be able to meet that deadline despite the current ban on sports until 2021.