Pac-12 back on football track. What does it mean for high schools and Big Sky?

Money doesn’t just talk in big-time college athletics.

It shrieks and bellows. And nothing speaks louder than football.

First, it was the Big Ten that announced it was reversing course amid this challenging coronavirus era with plans to play this fall and not in the spring. This is a game of competition. Big Ten bosses, coaches, players and boosters saw how other conferences kicked off over the weekend and wanted a piece of the action.

The Pac-12 this week also jumped aboard, announcing a plan to compete later this fall, backed by the sudden blessing or clarification of governors in California and Oregon. Now there is discussion to get the ball rolling in the Mountain West Conference that includes Boise State, San Jose State, Fresno State and Nevada.

Good for them. All of them.

I applaud the idea of trying to get football back in play while understanding the need to be safe and cautious and of reminding student-athletes to not huddle in parties after practices and games and engaging in super-spreader COVID-19 scenes.

Players want games. Fans are starving for it, though the counter argument is this: who would sell their souls for a game of blocking and tackling at the risk of illness or death to others, or a breakdown of their own bodies?

What about Big Sky, JC and HS ball?

Rapid-result COVID-19 tests are the key to ensuring full practices and games, meaning finances, and money is the blood source in a lot of college athletics.

You have it, or you don’t. This brings us to the Big Sky Conference that includes Sacramento State and UC Davis and community college ball in California, generally the best played at that level, an entertaining brand that is a feeder to four-year powerhouse programs.

And what about high school football in California? Will we see a reverse in course for the Big Sky, JC’s and preps?

No, no and more no. The Grinch of bad news or no news stands tall in this argument.

Football is not being played on an even plane this fall, winter or spring. The Big Sky, JC ball and the prep level remain fixed on spring seasons, all the more time to prepare, organize and execute. There simply is not enough time, resources of cash flow to kick off any time this fall, people from those levels of football tell me.

So it’s spring time or bust. The Football Championship Series, which includes the Big Sky, is “committed to the playoffs in the spring,” Big Sky Associate Commissioner Jon Kasper told me via text message.

The monumental hurdle for preps, JCs and the FCS programs in any era, COVID or otherwise, remains finances.

Added Kasper, “Our football committee just met and (fall football attempts) was not discussed. Testing costs is an issue.”

The Big Sky is a tremendous conference of football, prolific, entertaining, superbly coached. It stretches from California to Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington, eight states in all. But those programs and that conference does not have deep pockets, lucrative television deals and sponsor packages.

JC ball is not a money maker. That level is designed to mold, educate and advance student-athletes. California has more high schools than any other state, so the best-case scenario to kick off really is the spring.

What allows the Big Ten and Pac-12 to attempt a fall kickoff is rapid-result COVID-19 testing. This means results from a machine about the size of your laptop are available in an hour and not in days.

This is also where finances become a difference maker. It will cost about $350,000 for a football program to, on a daily basis, test players, staff and anyone connected to the action.

For the Big Ten, Pac-12 and those within the Mountain West, this is doable. Within days, tens of thousands of these rapid-response kits will be available to Pac-12 programs, including Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC. Each test costs between $21 to $23.

Sac State’s view

As a football lifer, Mark Orr is following all of the updates. He is the Sac State athletic director.

Football molded his life experiences and future. He played high school ball at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento and earned a scholarship to Cal, where he got hooked on the idea of athletic administration

”Even what’s happening in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and other places, it hasn’t affected our decisions in the Big Sky, and we have plans in place for spring seasons,” Orr said. “With eight different states in the Big Sky, we’re trying to get everything aligned with all of us. It’s not easy. Obviously, finances is a big part of it, but that’s not the only thing. Accessibility and availability to tests is a big thing. My hope is that over time, access and the expenses will be available to everyone, not just those in athletics.

“It’s certainly different having a fall without football. It just feels different. But our student-athletes and coaches have handled this well, understanding the big picture of keeping safe, of making sure we have all the protocols in place when we do hit the fields.”