What Utah’s schedule might look like in Pac-12-only scenario, and how a ‘plus-1’ plan could involve BYU

Utah Utes wide receiver Jaylen Dixon (25) sprints to the end zone during second-half action in the University of Utah at BYU football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019. After the Big Ten announced Thursday it will play conference-only games this season during the coronavirus pandemic, questions surround whether the Pac-12 will do the same. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Following the Big Ten’s announcement Thursday that it will only play conference games this fall, reports surfaced that other conferences, including the Pac-12, would follow suit.

While that might happen, nothing was official as of Friday afternoon.

In a conference call with reporters Friday morning, Utah athletics director Mark Harlan said several options were possible if the Pac-12 did cut nonconference games. Besides playing just nine scheduled games, the league could consider a 10-game or 11-game revised schedule or a “plus-1” schedule, where schools would play nine conference games plus one nonconference game.

If the Pac-12 does go to a league-only football schedule this fall then the University of Utah would have three open dates to start the season.

Gone would be the annual rivalry game with BYU on Sept. 3, a home game against Montana State on Sept. 12 and a road game against old Skyline/WAC/Mountain West rival Wyoming on Sept. 19.

The season wouldn’t start until Sept. 26 with a game at Cal, followed by a Friday night home game against USC on Oct. 2. The Utes would have one bye week, Oct. 24 and play every week until the regular-season finale at Colorado on Nov. 28.

There’s speculation that the league might add a game and have a 10-game schedule so that every school has five home games and five road games or even play 11 games so that every school plays every opponent in the league.

If the Pac-12 goes with the 10-game schedule, it won’t simply be a matter of putting two teams not facing each other this year into an early-season slot.

Let’s use Utah as an example.

The two teams the Utes aren’t scheduled to play this year are Oregon and Stanford.

Like Utah, Oregon has its three nonconference games the first three weekends of September. However Stanford has a nonleague game scheduled against William and Mary on Sept. 5, then is set to play at Notre Dame on Oct. 10 and hosts BYU on Nov. 28.

So Utah might be able to play Oregon or Stanford on the Sept. 5 weekend or Oregon one of the following two weeks.

Except for this problem. All three schools are scheduled to play just four league home games and five road games. So one of the teams would end up with four home games and six road games.

Then it gets complicated with several games needing to be moved around in order to give every school at least five home games.

The “plus-1” scenario would allow teams one extra nonleague contest, meaning the Utes would likely play BYU and USC and Stanford would play their annual games against Notre Dame.

With everything on the COVID-19 front a little uncertain right now, most leagues would probably rather begin as late as possible, and starting games on the Sept. 26 weekend would give everyone an extra three weeks of preparation and hopefully have the virus more under control.

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