There’s still much to be decided about the Utah football team’s 2020 season during the coronavirus pandemic. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Various scenarios are still being discussed by the Pac-12.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics director Mark Harlan addressed a variety of topics in a teleconference with beat writers Friday morning. Harlan confirmed that the Pac-12 presidents, chancellors and athletic directors had a previously scheduled meeting set for later in the day, but declined to speculate on anything such as a vote on conference-only play at this time — noting there were a lot of agenda items to discuss.
Harlan did, however, provide more detail to other inquiries, such as if he thinks the Sept. 3 game between Utah and BYU at Rice-Eccles Stadium will take place.
“I would love to be able to play 12 games, including our three nonconference games, I can tell you that much,” Harlan said.
The Utah athletics department is planning to send out the latest updates on things in the next couple of weeks. Harlan noted with the situation changing rapidly in mid-July, so, too, do situations like fan seating, scheduling and stadium operations on game days.
NONCONFERENCE GAMES: “This is a year, as you probably know, that we would have less home games (four) in the conference. We’re in that every other year deal. So how many home games would we lose in any model will obviously be factored into that situation and certainly we have two nonconference opponents (BYU, Montana State) that would be coming in and are you able to gain those games back? We know that every game with season ticket revenue is a lot of money, so any lost home games certainly would be from a financial standpoint damaging. We’re so blessed to have such a high season ticket base on a year-by-year basis, including this year with so many people renewing, for us any game — whether it’s a conference or nonconference — is a highly attended event. So certainly it would be damaging if we have less than six home games.”
BIG TEN AND THE PAC-12: “Those first two games (Michigan at Washington and Ohio State at Oregon) are gigantic. ... This is a year we all saw from the conference perspective to have these two type of schools coming into our footprint does not happen every day. It would have been an incredible opportunity for the Pac-12 to really make a statement and to get them on your turf, you certainly feel like you’ve got an opportunity. So obviously that was very disappointing. I think we’ve learned in the COVID adventure that you’re going to be dealing with disappointment and you’ve just got to manage and move forward.”
NEXT MOVE: “Well it’s certainly hard for me to predict what the Pac-12 will do. We certainly have had a lot of conversations. Each school, obviously, would weigh in and we have not called this to question. We have certainly not voted on this and really have no timetable of when that could happen. It could be imminent or it could be further out. That’s just all predictive and I have learned it’s hard to make predictions, anyway, much less in this COVID situation. So it’s hard to say any timetable, but it is also fair to say that there have been a lot of conversations as I’ve been talking to you guys about for months. We have very different scenarios that we’ve worked very hard on. So we’re ready if it is called to question to move forward in whatever route is chosen.”
UTAH’S BUDGET: “We have done some considerable operational cutbacks to the organization; (we’re) real proud of our department heads and also our head coaches for really digging deep and look at this year with different lenses based on what we’re all up against. That drill took out about $8 million of our budget. Our budget does contemplate six home (football) games with limited fans. So even with those cuts we wanted to put that in there. We know things can maybe have to go deeper based on the upcoming situation with football and other sports. But as we go into this we made those kind of cuts.”
PAY CUTS: “I will say without getting too specific. It’s fair to say our top earners in the department have agreed to take salary cuts and I’m very appreciative of the individuals that have done that. That’s specific to Larry (Krystkowiak), Kyle (Whittingham) and myself. I can confirm that we had done that and I’m very appreciative of those that have done that — knowing that we are one team, we are one athletic department and we need to all work to get through this together.”
Harlan added that the cuts to the operational budget won’t get in the way of the academic success of Utah’s student-athletes or competitive success.
11-GAME PAC-12 SCHEDULE: “It is fair to say there are plans that we have looked at that do look at all different scenarios. That could include us playing everybody along with less than that. It’s just all going to be dictated, obviously, in what we’re able to do and when we make decisions in regards to what we’re able to do. But it is fair to say that there are multiple plans that include the idea that we would all play each other. Obviously that would mean 11 games and if you switch to a nonconference, I think you’re pretty much suggesting that you’re not going to be able to play 11 or 12 games, so it’s hard to say which one is more realistic at this point, but it’s fair to say we’ve looked at all those models.”
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