Pac-12 football preview, predictions 2020: A Blitz Podcast

With the coronavirus threatening to derail the 2020 season, we trudge forward and offer our preview and predictions for Pac-12 football.

Recent optimism has been replaced with uncertainty as the Pac-12 and other conferences have made the move to conference only schedules for the 2020 college football season. The coronavirus continues to surge in the United States, and the dream of a normal college football season is now dead.

The Ivy League and the Patriot League of the FCS already made the decisions to cancel the fall seasons altogether with an eye toward potentially playing in the spring. The decision by the Pac-12 and others to cancel — conference games and proceed with a conference only schedule bides needed time with time running out before the season is scheduled to kick off.

Each conference can now regulate uniform COVID-19 regulations for each member institution to follow. The lack of central leadership for college football undoubtedly made this the only decision that could really be made.

It would not surprise either of us if the ultimate decision is for football to be pushed back to the spring, though that would present its own list of problems. We’re rapidly reaching the point of not only the 2020 season being impacted, but the 2021 campaign as well.

But alas, for now we still have the illusion of some kind of season in the fall. So we trudge forward with our conference-by-conference previews. If you wanted to listen us break down the FCS, IVY, and HBCU races, click here. For the Group of Five preview, click here.

The loss of non-conference games will likely impact the Pac-12 more adversely than the other Power Five leagues. The Pac-12 ranks just ahead of the ACC in TV revenue, and the league is routinely thought to be the weakest among the major conferences. Losing non-conference opportunities against the likes of Ohio State and Alabama for Oregon and USC respectively, will do nothing to improve the league’s standing.

How will a conference only schedule look for the Pac-12? We dissect the current nine-game schedule for each team and offer up the options for each team to end up with a potential 10th league game on the schedule.

Oregon and USC are the preseason favorites in the respective divisions, but what teams could throw a monkey wrench into that established order and upset the balance of power out west?

The Saturday Blitz Podcast is part of the FanSided Radio Network at Spreaker. The show goes live every Wednesday morning. You can reach John Mitchell at @jlmitchell93 and Zach Bigalke at @zbigalke on Twitter.