California and Oregon Relaxing Regulations for Pac-12

On Wednesday, California governor Gavin Newsom said that nothing was stopping the Pac-12 from bringing back fall sports, neglecting to mention that his own gathering guidelines did in fact inhibit football games and practices. However, right after that, he got to work on relaxing said guidelines.

Governor Newsom first lifted the restrictions on player gatherings totaling more than 12 people, then delegated follow-up decision-making on the football matters to the health officials in individual regions. Later in the day, Jon Wilner of the Mercury News reported that "athletic directors at USC and UCLA joined forces and held a joint Zoom call with Los Angeles County health officials Wednesday evening to clear a path for the football teams to begin practicing."

The other California schools in the Pac-12 include Cal and Stanford.

Also on Wednesday, Oregon governor Kate Brown granted an exemption to state guidelines for Pac-12 schools -- Oregon and Oregon State -- pending submission of safety protocols:

President Trump, during his radio conversation with Outkick founder Clay Travis this morning, took a victory lap on the Big Ten returning and said, "Now we're gonna work on the Pac-12. I mean, there's no reason why they shouldn't be playing. Now they're the only ones, just about. They should be playing. Maybe you can't. I don't know. Maybe you can't at this point. It's getting a little bit late. But they should be playing football. It's ridiculous. They may have a problem with their venues. Who knows. Some of them have a problem with the governors. The governors had to come together. We have some governors that are Democrats. And, it wasn't easy, but we got it done."

There does seem to be sudden optimism for a Pac-12 season starting in late October. The air quality may be a bigger hurdle to clear at this point than the regulations. We shall see.