The 2020 Pac-12 Conference football season was the 42nd season of Pac-12 football taking place during the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season was originally scheduled to begin on September 26, 2020, and end with the 2020 Pac-12 Championship Game on December 18–19, 2020, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. On July 10, 2020, the Pac-12 announced that all competition in fall sports, including football, will be played exclusively in-conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 11, 2020, the Pac-12 Conference suspended all fall sports competitions due to the ongoing pandemic. On September 24, 2020 the Pac-12 Conference announced that the postponement of fall sports was to be ended and teams will return to play with a six-game Conference-only season to begin on November 6, and the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 18 with the rest of the conference seeded for a seventh game.

The Pac-12 was a Power Five Conference under the College Football Playoff format along with the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12 Conference, Big Ten Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. The 2020 season was the tenth for the twelve Pac-12 teams to be divided into two divisions of six teams each, named North and South.

Preseason 2020 Pac-12 Spring Football and number of signees on signing day:

North Division California – Oregon – Oregon State – Stanford – Washington – Washington State –

South Division Arizona – Arizona State – Colorado – UCLA – USC – Utah –

Recruiting classes + Rankings Team ESPN Rivals Scout & 24/7SigneesArizona-637115Arizona State27242418California39323626Colorado31343323Oregon1381323Oregon State-434820Stanford20252218UCLA34302929USC-645612Utah-423417Washington15131522Washington State-506119

Pac-12 Media Days The Pac-12 will conduct its 2020 Pac-12 media days at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, in Hollywood, California, in July on the Pac-12 Network.

The teams and representatives in respective order were as follows:

Pac-12 Commissioner – Larry Scott Arizona – Kevin Sumlin (HC), Arizona State – Herm Edwards (HC), California – Justin Wilcox (HC), Colorado – Karl Dorrell (HC), Oregon – Mario Cristobal (HC), Oregon State – Jonathan Smith (HC), Stanford – David Shaw (HC), UCLA – Chip Kelly (HC), USC – Clay Helton (HC), Utah – Kyle Whittingham (HC), Washington – Jimmy Lake (HC), Washington State – Nick Rolovich (HC),

Preseason Media polls The preseason polls was to be released in July 2020 but due to delaying the season it was released on October 7. Since 1992, the credentialed media has gotten the preseason champion correct just five times. Only nine times has the preseason pick even made it to the Pac-12 title game. Below are the results of the media poll with total points received next to each school and first-place votes in parentheses. For the 2020 poll, Oregon was voted as the favorite to win both the North Division and the Pac–12 Championship Game.

+North 1 Oregon 222 (35) 2 California 176 (3) 3 Washington 161 4 Stanford 105 5 Oregon State 76 6 Washington State 58 +South 1 USC 220 (32) 2 Arizona State 181 (2) 3 Utah 168 (4) 4 UCLA 109 5 Colorado 63 6 Arizona 57 Media poll (Pac-12 Championship) 1 Oregon 21 2 USC 15 3 Arizona State 1 4 Utah 1

Preseason awards

Preseason All Pac-12

First Team Position Player Class Team First Team Offense QB Kedon Slovis So. USC RB C. J. Verdell Jr. Oregon Max Borghi So. Washington State WR Amon-Ra St. Brown Jr. USC (2) Tyler Vaughns RSr. USC (3) TE Brant Kuithe Jr. Utah OL Alijah Vera-Tucker RJr. USC (4) Abraham Lucas RJr. Washington State (2) Jaxson Kirkland Jr. Washington Nick Ford Jr. Utah (2) Drew Dalman Sr. Stanford First Team Defense DL Kayvon Thibodeaux So. Oregon (2) Mustafa Johnson Sr. Colorado Jordon Scott Sr. Oregon (3) Jermayne Lole Jr. Arizona State LB Hamilcar Rashed Jr. RSr. Oregon State Nate Landman Sr. Colorado (2) Drake Jackson So. USC (5) DB Elijah Molden Sr. Washington (2) Camryn Bynum RSr. California Talanoa Hufanga Jr. USC (6) Deommodore Lenoir Sr. Oregon (4) First Team Special Teams PK Blake Mazza RJr. Washington State (3) P Michael Turk RJr. Arizona State (2) RT Max Borghi So. Washington State (4)

Second Team Position Player Class Team Second Team Offense QB Jayden Daniels So. Arizona State (3) RB Jermar Jefferson Jr. Oregon State (2) Christopher Brooks Jr. Jr. California (2) WR Frank Darby GSr. Arizona State (4) Johnny Johnson III Sr. Oregon (5) TE Cade Otton Jr. Washington (3) OL Orlando Umana Sr. Utah (3) Jake Curhan RSr. California (3) Dohnovan West So. Arizona State (4) Foster Sarell Sr. Stanford (2) Simi Moala So. Utah (4) Second Team Defense DL Mika Tafua Jr. Utah (5) Thomas Booker Jr. Stanford (3) Osa Odighizuwa RSr. UCLA Brett Johnson So. California (3) LB Kuony Deng RSr. California (4) Jahad Woods RSr. Washington State (5) Ryan Bowman Sr. Washington (4) DB Jack Jones RJr. Arizona State (5) Elijah Hicks Sr. California (5) Mykael Wright So. Oregon (6) Aashari Crosswell Jr. Arizona State (6) Second Team Special Teams PK Peyton Henry Jr. Washington (4) P Ben Griffiths RSo. USC (7) RT Demetric Felton RSr. UCLA (2) Britain Covey Jr. Utah (6)

Activism On August 2, 2020, a few days after the Pac-12 announced a conference only season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of 13 Pac-12 football players from 10 schools released a list of demands including health and safety protections, guaranteed medical coverage for players, elimination of excessive salaries for staff, end to racial injustice in sports and society, and a profit-sharing arrangement whereby 50% of the conference revenues will be distributed evenly among athletes. The players threatened to boycott practices and games unless the demands are met.

+ List of Pac-12 student-athlete activists Player Position School Treyjohn Butler DB StanfordJake Curhan OL CalValentino Daltoso OL CalJoshua Drayden DB CalNick Ford OL UtahJaydon Grant DB Oregon StateElisha Guidry DB UCLAMalik Hausman DB ArizonaDallas Hobbs DL Washington StateJevon Holland DB OregonTy Jones WR WashingtonCody Shear OL Arizona StateJoe Tryon-Shoyinka LB Washington

Head coaches

Coaching changes There were three coaching change following the 2019 season, Karl Dorrell (Colorado), Jimmy Lake (Washington) and Nick Rolovich (Washington State).

Coaches Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season.

Team Head coach Years at school Overall record Record at school Pac–12 recordArizona Kevin Sumlin 3 95–58 9–15 6–12Arizona State Herm Edwards 3 15–11 15–11 9–9California Justin Wilcox 4 20–18 20–18 10–17Colorado Karl Dorrell 1 35-27 0–0 35-27Oregon Mario Cristobal 4 48–54 21–7 13–5Oregon State Jonathan Smith 3 7–17 7–17 5–13Stanford David Shaw 10 86–34 86–34 58–22UCLA Chip Kelly 3 53–24 7–17 7–11USC Clay Helton 7 40–22 40–22 31–12Utah Kyle Whittingham 16 131–63 131–63 42–39Washington Jimmy Lake 1 0–0 0–0 0–0Washington State Nick Rolovich 1 28–27 0–0 0–0

Rankings

  Pre Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10 Wk11 Wk12 Wk13 Wk14 Wk15 Wk16 FinalArizona AP C CFP Not released Arizona State AP RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released California AP RV RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released Colorado AP RV 21 RV C RV RV 22 RV RV CFP Not released 21 25 Oregon AP 9 14 12 12 13 14 12 11 11 9 21 25 C 9 17 16 15 15 14 12 13 11 20 RV RV RV CFP Not released 15 23 25 Oregon State AP RV C CFP Not released Stanford AP C RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released UCLA AP RV C CFP Not released USC AP 17 RV RV 25 24 21 20 20 20 19 17 16 13 21 C 17 RV 24 23 20 20 20 19 18 16 15 13 19 CFP Not released 18 20 15 13 17 Utah AP 22 RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV C 20 RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released Washington AP RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV 23 RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV RV 23 RV RV RV CFP Not released 22 Washington State AP C RV CFP Not released

+ Legend     Improvement in ranking   Drop in ranking   Not ranked previous week   No change in ranking from previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll т Tied with team above or below also with this symbol

Schedules Index to colors and formattingPac-12 member wonPac-12 member lostPac-12 teams in bold All times Pacific time. Pac-12 teams in bold.

Rankings reflect those of the AP poll for that week.

Regular season The regular season was originally scheduled to begin on September 26, 2020, and end on December 5, 2020. The Pac-12 Championship Game was scheduled for December 18–19, 2020. It was announced on July 10, 2020 that all non-conference games would be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6 The game between Stanford and Oregon State was moved from Stanford to Corvallis due to a ban on contact sports in Santa Clara County.

Week 7

Pac-12 Championship Game

The Pac-12 Championship Game, the conference's tenth championship game, will be played on December 18, 2020, at the home stadium of the division champion with the best record. It was planned to be contested by the winners of the North and South divisions. The remaining Pac-12 teams will play a series of seeded games during this week; each team will play against the cross-divisional opponent that finished in the same place in the standings. Washington, the North Division winner, was scheduled to play USC, the South Division winner, in the championship game, but COVID issues forced it back out, allowing the second-best team by record in the North, Oregon, to take their place instead.

Canceled regular season games The following non-conference games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Aug. 29

Hawaii at Arizona

New Mexico State at UCLA

California at UNLV

Sep. 3

Northern Arizona at Arizona State BYU at Utah

Oregon State at Oklahoma State Washington State at Utah State

Sept. 5

Portland State at Arizona USC vs. Alabama (at Arlington, TX) UCLA at Hawaii

Colorado at Colorado State TCU at California William & Mary at Stanford

North Dakota State at Oregon Michigan at Washington

Sept. 12

Arizona State at UNLV New Mexico at USC Fresno State at Colorado

Montana State at Utah Cal Poly at California Ohio State at Oregon

Colorado State at Oregon State Sacramento State at Washington Houston at Washington State

Sept. 19

Arizona at Texas Tech BYU at Arizona State UCLA at San Diego State

Colorado at Texas A&M Utah at Wyoming Hawaii at Oregon

Portland State at Oregon State Utah State at Washington Idaho at Washington State

Oct. 10 Stanford at Notre Dame

Nov. 28

Notre Dame at USC

BYU at Stanford

Postseason

Bowl games Legend Pac-12 win Pac-12 loss

Bowl gameDateSiteTelevisionTime (PST)Pac-12 teamOpponentScoreAttendanceAlamo BowlDecember 29Alamodome • San Antonio, TexasESPN6:00 p.m.ColoradoNo. 20 TexasL 23–55 10,822New Year's Six BowlFiesta BowlJanuary 2State Farm Stadium • Glendale, ArizonaESPN1:00 p.m.No. 25 OregonNo. 10 Iowa StateL 17–34 0 Rankings are from CFP rankings. All times Pacific Time Zone. Pac-12 teams shown in bold.

Selection of teams Bowl eligible: Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, USC, Utah, Washington Bowl-ineligible: Arizona, California, Oregon State, UCLA, Washington State Arizona State, Stanford, USC, and Washington declined to pursue bowl game opportunities. UCLA and Utah opted out of playing in a bowl before their final regular season games and with their eligibility still in doubt.

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors