Arizona's 2020 schedule has now officially been updated to reflect the Pac-12's decision to go to a conference-only slate this year. The games have been a bit reshuffled since the league wanted to have five home games and five road games for every team. Arizona's first conference game had been scheduled to come against Stanford at home on Sept. 12 but that has been flipped to the last season of the game and changed to a road game for the Wildcats.
That is just one of the changes that will take place with the revised schedule. Since there is now a different look to the upcoming season, in more ways than one, I decided it would be a good idea to give some of my thoughts on the schedule and whether or not all the changes will favor the Wildcats in another important season for Kevin Sumlin and his staff.
Key points
Before getting into my breakdown of each upcoming game on Arizona's revised schedule I wanted to offer up some key points about what was said during the Pac-12's virtual webinar featuring Larry Scott and others from the conference as they discussed the decisions made today by the league.
• Training camp will be allowed to begin starting Aug. 17, but not every program is going to be in a position to do that. It will give teams 40 days to go through 25 practices and it will be up to the individual programs to decide how they want to split up that schedule. As of now it is unclear when the Wildcats will begin training camp since not all players have even arrived in Tucson as of this time.
The league will allow the 20-hour rule to begin next week clearing the way for some more interaction between coaches and athletes plus mandatory workouts will be permitted as well.
• The Pac-12 Championship will be be played either Dec. 18 or Dec. 19 and it will not be in Las Vegas as had been planned. Instead, the team with the best record at the end of the regular season will host at its home stadium.
• Each team will have five home games and five road games plus one bye week in addition to a league-wide open date Dec. 12 that could be used for games that had to be rescheduled earlier in the season.
• The first two games of the season have the option to be rolled into a bye week if teams are not ready to play at that time. So UA's game against Arizona State (Sept. 26) could be moved to the teams' bye week on Oct. 17. Arizona's road game against Washington (Oct. 3) could also be moved into that open spot should either team need it. Arizona, ASU, Washington and Stanford all have their bye weeks set for Oct. 17 to accommodate such a move.
• The Dec. 12 open date will serve as a week for games rescheduled game to be made up across the league should any teams need them.
• Cal was added to the Wildcats' schedule as expected, and UA will host the Golden Bears on Nov. 14. Outside of Cal being added and the Stanford matchup being moved to a road game for the Wildcats, all other sites and opponents were kept the same from the original schedule with only the dates of the games reshuffled.
• Scott admitted that he is unsure whether or not a season will take place this year, but he remains optimistic that the conference's schedule will give the league enough room to be flexible should any situations arise throughout the season that would force games to be rescheduled.
• As of now the league has no plans to determine whether or not fans will be allowed in stadiums this season as Scott said that will be up to local health officials and individual schools to decide.
Week 1 (Sept. 26) – Arizona vs ASU
The schedule makers did Arizona no favors by scheduling the first game for Paul Rhoads' and the Wildcats' defense against the team's in-state rival. UA has lost four of its last five against the Sun Devils including the last three and both games under Kevin Sumlin. UA opening at home is a plus, but there will surely be kinks to work out for the defense as it plays its first game under its new coordinator and completely revamped defensive staff. It will be an early test for how the season could end up for the Wildcats.
Week 2 (Oct. 3) – Arizona at Washington
Taking on one of the best teams in the league in recent years is also not a nice way for the conference to treat the Wildcats. The last time Arizona made the trek to Seattle it wasn't pretty as it ended with a 49-3 loss to the Huskies in 2015. UA's last win against UW came in 2014 season when the Wildcats edged out the Huskies 27-26. That's a long trip to make as the team's first home game as well. The glimmer of hope for the Wildcats is that UW is working under a new head coach, Jimmy Lake, and will have a new starting quarterback this year.
Week 3 (Oct. 10) – Arizona vs Colorado
The Buffaloes are likely going to be the team competing to stay out of the bottom of the conference media poll when it is released at some point. Karl Dorrell will return as a Pac-12 head coach this season as he takes over fro Mel Tucker who bolted Boulder for Michigan State after the season. Colorado has plenty of question marks after losing some of its top playmakers from last season's team and it could be Arizona's best chance for an early win this season. Nobody has a good idea of what the Buffaloes will look like this year, but the Wildcats should have a shot to earn their fourth consecutive win over the South Division squad.
Week 5 (Oct. 24) – Arizona vs USC
Assuming all goes according to lan, the Wildcats will have a couple back-to-back home games and its matchup against USC could be one of those and it will be coming off a bye as long as both of the first two games of the season go off without a hitch. Getting some extra time to prepare for the Trojans will be helpful, but it might not make the task of taking down USC any easier. The Wildcats have struggled for the last several years when they get on the same field as Clay Helton's squad and the Trojans are going to be in the mix for a conference title this year. There has been quite a bit of shuffling with the coaching staff, but as always there is plenty of talent all over the field for USC.
Week 6 (Oct. 31) – Arizona at Utah
This is a difficult part of Arizona's schedule and playing Utah a week after playing USC is a bit brutal, but that is the reality in this season for the Wildcats and it will be a tall task as UA will have to make the trip to Salt Lake City for a Halloween matchup. Luckily, it won't be as cold as it would have in November when the Wildcats were previously scheduled to make the trek to Utah, but it still will not be an easy matchup. It should be another physical matchup for the Wildcats and while Utah is going through some of its own changes the Utes will likely be one of the better teams in the league once again.
