The Pac-12 CEO group voted to allow family members of student-athletes to attend football games scheduled this season pending local public health authority approval and in accordance with NCAA guidelines, the conference announced Wednesday.
The announcement is an alteration of a previous rule stating no fans were allowed to attend Pac-12 football games, which was made public on Sept. 24 when the conference released its plans to return to play.
"Each of our member schools is working through what will be allowed in terms of family member attendance on that basis," the conference said in a statement on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
An ASU spokesperson had "nothing to say yet" on the ruling Wednesday.
Parents and family members of Pac-12 football players created a petition on Change.org Monday responding to the initial restriction and asked the conference to allow them into stadiums to watch games live.
The petition, which has been shared by Pac-12 football players on Twitter, including ASU sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels, has more than 3,600 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
"Families of football players in the PAC 12 make many sacrifices so that their sons can play football and serve their universities as well as the vast community of college football fans throughout the nation who will be watching the games on tv (sic)," the petition said. "Just as the community at large yearns for the upcoming football games, we yearn to cheer for our boys as we have done every season since they started playing football in the youth leagues."
After going 8-5 overall (4-5 Pac-12) in 2019, ASU will play a seven-game, conference-only schedule starting on Nov. 7. The winner of the north and south divisions of the conference will play for the Pac-12 Conference Championship on Dec. 18.
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