How the Pac-12, Big Ten postponements align with high school football

High school sports decision-makers have considered endless amounts of data since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. What impact Tuesday's stunning announcements from the Big Ten and Pacific-12 conferences will have on the prep football seasons is up in the air.

But that's status quo for the COVID-19 era.

Both Power Five college conferences canceled their fall sports seasons, including football, and hope to resume them in the spring. High school sports governing bodies are well ahead of them and over the last month have laid out, in most cases, concrete plans for the 2020-21 seasons.

Of the 11 Big 10 states, seven already have committed to playing high school in the fall — Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin. Three states — Maryland, Illinois and Minnesota — have moved football to the spring. Pennsylvania remains undecided, but is leaning toward the fall.

Of the six Pac-12 states, four — California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have already moved football to 2021. Utah, which opens the high school football season nationally on Thursday, and Arizona are each committed to playing in the fall. 

Officials from most of those state high school associations have stated that college football, with its vast travel, lodging, food and television costs, is a different beast than the prep game. Almost every state has prohibited out-of-state high school travel for the 2020-21 season.

One potential positive for fall high school players concerning the Big Ten and Pac-12 announcements is that college coaches should have time to see and, possibly, recruit them in person during the prep season.  

Here are the Big Ten and Pac-12 states and high school football kickoff dates for the fall of 2020 season.

Utah — Aug. 13

Indiana — Aug. 20
Wisconsin — Sept. 23

Arizona — Sept. 30

New Jersey — Oct. 2

As of last week, Pennsylvania had planned to kick off Aug. 28, but following Gov. Tom Wolf's surprising recommendation to not play high school sports until 2021, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association "paused" its decision for two weeks to discuss the matter.