The question to USC athletic director Mike Bohn was simple and straightforward -- the answer understandably not quite as easy.

Based on his discussions with Pac-12 leaders, what sense of optimism is there within the conference that a spring football season is actually a viable possibility?

"Until we learn more, that we don't have optimism, we believe in hope," Bohn said. "I know that Clay and his coaches believe in giving our players hope, and I'm a firm believer that until we have additional information there's no reason for us not to be optimistic."

Bohn, Trojans football coach Clay Helton, team physician Dr. Seth Gamradt and players Kedon Slovis and Talanoa Hufanga talked with reporters Wednesday in a Zoom call to react to the Pac-12's announcement Tuesday that there would be no sports played in the conference until at least Jan. 1.

RELATED: Full transcript and full audio from USC's news conference

So far, only the Big Ten has made the same decision regarding the fall football season, while the SEC, Big 12 and ACC for now move forward with intentions of playing games next month.

Bohn also noted that having basketball also postponed until at least Jan. 1 was a "surprise." The Big Ten said it would continue to evaluate decisions for winter sports.

The division that has emerged this week across the NCAA spectrum has created myriad questions and concerns for what this all means moving forward for conferences like the Pac-12 and schools like USC that are, for now at least, going against the majority.

And most of those questions don't yet have definitive answers.

To drive that point home, Helton's answer about whether playing a spring football season was viable involved mostly his own questions.

"I still think there's a lot of questions out there and I don't have all of the answers. The things that are going to come up are where are we in the world, where are we with the infection rate, where are we with testing and being able to shift more to an NFL model and being able to do multiple tests if not tests every day to ensure safety? Where are we with the study of the heart and the damage this virus has done to it? How long is the season and when does that season end? Is that enough time between that season and the fall?" Helton said.

"This is a fast and violent sport that we play. The one thing that I am thankful for and I'm appreciative of is I'm in a conference that listens, respects, supports the decisions that come down from our medical advisory committee, and a group of presidents and universities that put the health and safety of the student-athlete first. So as a coach you prepare, you prepare your team for the opportunity if that comes about, but also we're going to have to see where we are come Jan. 1 if it's viable option and where are we with this in the world?"

The news conference did provide perspective, particularly from Gamradt, who has been involved in the ongoing medical discussions held at the conference level.

He reiterated that the situation changed so swiftly -- from the Pac-12 releasing a revised football schedule a week and a half ago to cancelling the fall season on Tuesday -- because of the emerging research and questions related to myocarditis -- an inflammation of the heart muscle that has now been linked to COVID-19.

According to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, at least 10 cases of myocarditis have been identified in Big Ten players who had tested positive for COVID-19.

There is not a known case number within the Pac-12, but Gamradt said USC has had no positive cases while having every student-athlete who tests positive for COVID-19 -- of which USC has reported eight positive tests since mid-June -- undergo an echocardiogram and tests specifically for myocarditis.

"The problem with this virus is it's a very new thing and every week we learn more about it," Gamradt said. "Everything points to this being a benign illness in the young people, in the collegiate age group, especially in the elite athletes. But it doesn't have to be. There have been some cases that have cropped up around the country of athletes who have had COVID and recovered have been known to have myocarditis. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that comes after a flu illness or after a cold illness. We don't really know the mechanism by which COVID-19 provokes it, but that can place the heart at risk in the future.

"There have been some cases that have cropped up in the Big Ten, Big 12, Major League Baseball, there's a case in Indiana, and you start hearing about these cases and that gives me a little bit of pause because what I want to be able to give is a guarantee to those parents that are sending their young men for us to take care of, that, hey, what we're doing is safe for you. ... But right now the myocarditis issue, I can't give you any more information than that -- it's very new. Every week we'll learn more about it, and I know we'll know more in January about how to keep these athletes safe than we do today."

Gamradt also was asked, aside from the virus or myocarditis or any other health malady related to the pandemic, does he as a sports medicine professional think it's possible or safe for college athletes to essentially play two football seasons in the same calendar year if there is a spring season.

"As an orthopedic surgeon, certainly that gives me a little bit of pause to play two football seasons in a calendar year, but it doesn't mean that it can't be done," he said. "But that's going to be a decision that's going to be made in conjunction with our players, in conjunction with Coach Helton, the athletic departments and across the conferences that have postponed the season. I think it will be a global reckoning, if you will, if it makes sense to play in the spring. It's too soon to start talking about -- what happened yesterday is so fresh."

It is very fresh and it still remains to be seen if the SEC, ACC and Big 12 make it to the starting line of a fall football season -- or through a full fall season for that matter.

But many have wondered how, with all the talk of collaboration between the Power 5 conferences, there could be such starkly contrasting opinions and interpretations of the medical data and science.

Gamradt was cautious in his response to that.

"Well I think part of it is we have a lot of COVID in the Pac-12 footprint so it makes it pretty challenging to test enough because logistically it makes it hard to test an entire traveling party of 200 people every single day to make it happen and there's no bubble situation that you can do in college football," he said. "So I think that the other conferences -- and I wish them well, I hope that the cardiac issue turns out to be overblown, but we don't know that information and that uncertainty is what causes us to give pause. Meaning that, if this cardiac issue turns out to be a big issue for kids who have COVID then this will prove to be a very, very good decision and our athletes' health and well-being is first and foremost in our mind in this decision."

One of the reasons why hope remains for a spring football season is not that the pandemic will be gone by January but that schools will have advanced testing capabilities within the coming months to allow for significantly greater testing capacity and rapid results that make containing any potential spread of the virus more realistic once student-athletes are not just training with social distance but engaging in contact practices and games.

In the meantime, Helton said he'll give his players a plan and they'll continue preparing with the hope that there will be a season.

"In the military you get tasked with a mission, and sometimes conditions aren't right to execute and the mission gets altered. What do you do? You continue to prepare, you continue to train because you know that mission's coming and you've got to be prepared for it," Helton said. "And I was so proud of them -- they woke up today 6:30 and were right back out there preparing for the next opportunity whenever that might be. ...

"You shift your calendar not knowing what the future holds but you have to be prepared if and when a season does take place. So our calendar is being worked at right now through coaches, strength and conditioning, medicine, our training staff to be able to put a new offseason calendar together. We've got about two weeks left to get in true physical shape where I think we'll be in great shape. We'll work on some offseason speed and explosiveness in the month of September, October will be a main strength block for us and you go into November and you start working your conditioning and functional football movement and you see where you are in December and what the future holds and where we are not only at USC but worldly. That's what you have to do. You have to prepare, you have to have a plan, put it in place, prepare for if you're called upon. Our kids, I'm proud of them. They were there this morning in preparation for that next step."