With the Big 10 doing whatever it is that they’re doing, there's a want to return to play in the Pac-12 as well. USC’s players, with WR Amon-Ra St. Brown posting the Trojans open letter to California governor Gavin Newsom, are the first to make a push for lifting public health restrictions in the state to allow teams to practice. Pac-12 teams have had voluntary workouts since they’ve been able, with Justin Wilcox noting that Cal’s voluntary workouts have seen 75-80 players working out in smaller cohorts.

So what comes next? September 14th marked an important ‘opt-in’ date for the Bears, where the players who want to play in a potential season are back close to campus, and now there will be a few hurdles to cross in order to make a season happen this fall as opposed to in the New Year.

What Needs to Happen

1. Getting the daily testing via the conference's partnership with San Diego-based Quidel Corp. going at the end of September. Per a report from the Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, the daily testing regimen will be more strenuous than that of the NFL, which has multiple teams playing in the state of California, which would lead to...

2. Lifting of public health restrictions in California and Oregon that prevent half the Pac-12 from practicing. Currently both Oregon schools and all four California schools (Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA)

3. Smoke from fires across the west-coast subsides to healthier levels. Today marked the first day in the Bay area where the Air Quality Index was ‘moderate’ in some parts, including Berkeley. In Seattle, baseball games were called off with AQI levels topping 200 and approaching 300 (hazardous levels). Autzen Stadium had an AQI level of 666 within the last week. The conference has moved games before due to smoke (most recently the 2018 Big Game), so this is an imperative when teams have to practice outside due to public health regulations.

4. After all of that, there has been a cited need of four to six weeks of run-up to a season. That may be the bare minimum of time needed to prep for a season, because there's many pitfalls that come with too little practice time. You could see it across college and the pros this past weekend, with special teams play (something that indicates how much practice time a team has had) lacking, along with tackling issues for a handful of teams in the early weeks.

This is all easier said than done, as we're amid a global pandemic and the west coast is on fire. But there were three hurdles the Pac-12 discussed when they originally postponed the season on August 11th. Those were the lack of daily testing, community spread of COVID-19, and the risks of myocarditis. Quicker than anticipated daily testing eliminates the first problem and can help to mitigate the third. The community spread issue in Berkeley hasn't been as bad as in other Pac-12 cities, as the positivity rate of COVID-19 was 1.2% when things were postponed, with a rate of 1.5% from tests this past week. It all makes for a scenario where Pac-12 football could be played this fall.

- Cal had 19 former players playing last week, with the likes of Ashtyn Davis and Jaylinn Hawkins making their debuts with the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons respectively. Most notably, former Cal OL Mitchell Schwartz started his 129th consecutive NFL game, and his 180th game combined between Cal and the pros, as Schwartz started 51 consecutive games at Cal.

- Cal Athletics sent out a release this afternoon as the philanthropic arm has raised $36,069,047 in gifts and pledges this past fiscal year, from 6,776 donors who accounted for 12,494 gifts and pledges. Athletic director Jim Knowton noted that there would likely be about a $50 million shortfall if no football was played, and the pledges help to mitigate that, as well as endowing a handful of positions and programs at the school

- MBB head coach Mark Fox announced yesterday that all players had returned to campus to get to working out, as the basketball team has a workout space set up on the Hellman Tennis Complex.