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Now that the Pac-12 has decided to play football in the fall, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is how the schedule is going to look.  The finished product is expected to be unveiled in the coming days and it’s been among the first things Senior Associate Commissioner for Football Operations Merton Hanks has had to tackle.

Hanks, 52, has been on the job less than a month and steps in at a crucial time. There is no playbook on how to run a college sport in the midst of a global health pandemic.

Hanks, who played eight years in the NFL, seven of those with the San Francisco 49ers, addressed local media for 40 minutes on a Zoom conference call today.

He stepped into a role vacated by Woody Dixon, who moved on to a job in the corporate world.

The Pac-12 announced its intention to play a seven-game schedule last week after originally deciding in early August to put football off until the spring. It has been a mad scramble to get to the starting line since then with the Pac-12 the last of the Power 5 conferences to come up with a game plan on moving forward.

Teams are in ramp-up mode now, with the first slate of games coming the weekend of Nov. 6. It will be at least another week before teams can take-part in full contact practices.

Meanwhile, Hanks is tasked with coming up with an equitable schedule.

“The time constraint is the principle thing. These things usually take months. It’s one of those things, if everyone’s a little bit mad about the schedule we probably have a pretty good schedule. That speaks to competitive balance,” he said. “I’m a big competitive balance person. I want the same game played in Pullman that’s played in Tempe, that’s played in LA from an operation standpoint, certainly give our institutions every opportunity to succeed. Do we always get that done? No. But we certainly will strive to do that.”

Unlike other conferences, there is no room for moving games around with the seven scheduled in successive weeks, with a conference title game on Dec. 19. There will be no byes so there is no place to reschedule a game.

There have been 22 contests involving FBS schools that have been canceled or rescheduled with University of Houston losing three, all because of virus issues on the part of its opponent.

No one in the Pac-12 office thinks the slate of games to be released soon will go off without a hitch. Hanks said that will be addressed through legislative means, including tiebreakers that can be used in assessing who ends up where in the conference standings.

“We can’t proceed as if we’re not going to lose games. We’ll have language in our tiebreakers and other facets to address that issue because we’re counting on that,” he said. “It would be difficult to put in byes weeks because we just don’t have time left on the schedule. You have to assume you’re going to lose a game because no other conference has escaped unscathed.”

The seven-game schedule will have each team playing the other five schools in their division which means Arizona State would get the normal South division foes in USC, UCLA, Colorado, Utah and rival Arizona.

Each would also have a crossover game against a team in the other division. There has been a lot speculation on social media about which South team will get Oregon which is seen as a heavy favorite in the North.

The seventh game would see all teams playing the weekend of the conference title game. Teams that do not make the title game would play another crossover game against a team in the other division with the second-place finisher in the South facing the second in the North and so on.

There has been discussion about the Pac-12 playing games as early as 9 a.m. to take advantage of prime football windows in other national television markets. Hanks said as much but confirmed that no time have been determined.

There had been talk of that last year as well with the biggest arguments against it being the difficulty in getting a crowd to arrive at a game that early but that factor is not in play with the already announced decision to not have spectators.

ASU Athletic Director Ray Anderson has already commended the job Hanks is doing as well as the credibility he brings to the conference. The two go way back, having worked together in football operations in the NFL from 2004 to 2013.

“When it became clear the Pac-12 was going to have an opportunity to look for a senior position in football operations, the opportunity to focus in on someone with tremendous football acumen, experience, not just on the field but in various capacities was something we had an opportunity to do,” he said, over the same Zoom session “We talked about what characteristics, what skill set, what experiences, what relationship strengths with our head coaches, what are we looking for.  Merton brings instant credibility to the position.The folks in the trenches understand where Merton has been.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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