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The belated, abbreviated Pac-12 schedule is out, and the Arizona Wildcats have a tough road ahead.
Arizona will open the season on Nov. 7 at Utah, which won the South Division last year. After that, the UA hosts USC, which is the South favorite this year.
The Wildcats’ crossover game is among the most difficult in the league: at Washington on Nov. 21. Arizona plays three road games among its first four, with a trip to UCLA on tap the next week.
The final two known games on the UA schedule are at home vs. Colorado on Dec. 5 and vs. Arizona State on Friday, Dec. 11.
The second cross-division game is still to be determined and will take place the weekend of Dec. 18-19.
MORE: Arizona football schedule: Game predictions for Wildcats’ 2020 Pac-12 slate
As had been rumored, the Pac-12 will be part of Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” right out of the gate – except the local kickoff time will be 9 a.m. That’s when ASU will face USC at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 7.
Although the morning kickoff time is unusual – and, some would argue, inconvenient – it will provide valuable exposure for the conference on the East Coast and in the Midwest. It’s also easier to rationalize with no fans being allowed to attend games.
MORE: Pac-12 football schedule rankings: Oregon, USC have easiest paths to conference title game
Some other pertinent elements of the seven-game Pac-12 schedule:
- The Pac-12 Championship Game will take place at the home stadium of the highest-seeded team. The game was supposed to have been played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That new partnership will begin next year.
- Details on the Week 7 games other than the title game “will be determined in the near future,” according to a Pac-12 news release. The league also will reveal “updated tiebreaking procedures” to nail down those matchups.
- Every game through the first six weeks will be televised by an ESPN or Fox outlet. Fox will televise the Pac-12 Championship Game.
- All South Division rivalry games will take place during Week 6 (Dec. 11-12), while all North Division rivalry games will kick off on the Friday of Week 4 (Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving).
This is the third version of the Pac-12 football schedule. The original slate was negated in summer, when the league implemented a 10-game all-conference format to mitigate COVID-19 issues. The Pac-12 then postponed the ’20 season until January before reversing course last week.
Arizona ended last year on a seven-game losing streak to finish 4-8 in Kevin Sumlin’s second season.
MORE: ASU’s Jayden Daniels well behind Arizona’s Grant Gunnell in college football QB grades
Arizona football’s 2020 schedule:
- Nov. 7 – At Utah
- Nov. 14 – USC
- No. 21 – At Washington
- Nov. 28 – At UCLA
- Dec. 5 – Colorado
- Dec. 11 – Arizona State
- Dec. 18 or 19 – TBD
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