Pac-12 Announces Abbreviated Football Season; What Will Happen With Swimming?

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Pac-12 Announces Abbreviated Football Season; What Will Happen With Swimming?

Following the Big Ten Conference’s decision to reverse field and conduct a football season, various news outlets announced on Thursday night that the Pac-12 Conference will play a seven-game football season beginning in November. Prior to their reversals, the Big Ten and Pac-12 had announced that sports would be suspended at least through Dec. 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A winter sport with training held during the fall months, Pac-12 swimming and diving will wait to see how its competition schedule will be constructed. Is it possible the conference will allow dual meets before the end of the year, or will the conference follow the path set by the Big Ten, which has announced that no dual meets will take place until 2021. The NCAA Championships, which were canceled last year by COVID-19, are scheduled for March. While the Big Ten and Pac-12 initially announced the postponement of their fall sports, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 did not.

Whenever the Pac-12 decides that swimming can resume, there will be a different look to the conference’s competitive landscape, as Arizona State has already announced – in an innovative move – that its entire roster will redshirt for the coming season. Not only will the Sun Devils focus on training for Olympic Trials, they will retain an extra year of eligibility that will be exercised during an uninterrupted season, provided the Coronavirus is neutralized or a vaccine is found.

In addition to the move by Arizona State, the top incoming recruit in the Pac-12 Conference has already announced that she will defer her freshman year at Stanford University. Regan Smith, the world-record holder in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke, has decided to train for next year’s delayed Tokyo Olympics in her home state of Minnesota, instead of following her initial plan of enrolling at Stanford.

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