Pac-12’s Larry Scott: College football camps could start in July

Pac-12 conference commissioner Larry Scott said in an interview with CNN that football camps could start “as early as late July” with a path to start the season at the end of August.

“If things continue to progress in a positive direction, then training camp for football could start as early as late July and we could be on a nice glide path to the start of the college football season at the end of August,” Scott told CNN Newsroom.

A start of the season at the end of August would be on a timeline of what’s typical for college football. For example, the Sun Devils’ first game is slated for Sept. 3 against Northern Arizona. Arizona’s first game is on Aug. 29 versus Hawaii.

Scott also speculated that the presence of fans at college football games could vary across municipalities that have different rules for crowds gathering.

“I think what we’re going to see is a patchwork state-by-state on the fan issue,” Scott said. “I think we’ll see a wide disparity across the country where some states allow fans on a phased approach and other states will be more conservative.”

SEC presidents voted Friday to have voluntary workouts on campus on June 8.

The Sun Devils were in the middle of their spring football campaign with the coronavirus pandemic caused the sports world to grind to a halt. The efforts to produce a vaccine and the possibility of a second wave of cases could both play a factor in the timing of sports returning en masse, especially with fans in the seats.

Even if the banning of fans from sporting events means no ticket revenue for college athletic departments, TV revenue could be a needed boon to university balance sheets. Arizona announced earlier in May that coaches Sean Miller and Kevin Sumlin would be taking paycuts.

ASU baseball head coach Tracy Smith said Wednesday that the length of college baseball schedules in 2021 might depend on how much revenue is brought in from football this year.

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