The 2020 college football season is in full swing, and due to the sport, the demand is not as much as it will be canceled, as opposed to who will cancel it.
The main characters: the Big Ten and the Pac-12.
Right now, the season is officially still on, at least for the most part.
The Mid-American conference pulled the plug on its season Saturday morning, affecting 12 schools. The University of Connecticut, an independent, had already done so individually on Wednesday.
What comes next will determine a lot. No offense to those 13 schools, but college football can go on without them. The sport is normally played by 130 schools in 43 states, coming in all shapes, sizes and finances. Hardly anyone ever thought that 2020 would happen to everyone.
However, if there is no Ohio State or USC – let alone Clemson and Alabama – then forget it.
This Jenga tour of a sport is just waiting for the wrong block to pull under it. All eyes are on two of the nation’s Power Five conferences – one in the Midwest, the other in the West – that do the tugging.
“I think if one league closes, the others will follow like dominoes,” a SEC athletic director theorized this week.
It’s an unholy thought. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the balancing scales of optimism and pessimism have been quietly shaken up. After all, there was always hope, even if it was only loose based on the reality, that one or two or three leagues could just go it alone.
And maybe they will too. The Big 12 has appeared most assertively in the making. The SEC has always insisted “it just means more.” Then again, the virus will not bow to marketing slogans.
Almost everyone in college athletics wants to have a season, and not just because not having one will bring financial ruin. (Penn State recognized last week that losses “could reach nine figures in the event of no competition,” or $ 100 million.)
The bottom line is the bottom line.
If the season is to end, then there is the urge to be first, whether it be for historical or recruiting reasons. It’s easier to blame someone else. It’s one reason why everyone tried to catch the eye as far down the road as possible, delaying D-Day with short seasons and push-back openers.
Time is drawing, however.
The Big Ten on Saturday said it will not allow padded practices to begin. It wants further evaluation on the safety of leading them. With the season opening in that league scheduled for Sept. 5, the decision could force at least a postponement of Week 1 games until the end of September.
“We understand that there are many questions about how this is affecting separations, such as the ability to move forward with the season,” the Big Ten said in a statement. “As we have consistently stated, we will continue to evaluate day by day, relying on our medical experts, to make the best decisions possible for the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes.”
Then there’s the Pac-12, which has pushed its season opener back to Sept. 26, but still needs to start training camps. The league has set August 17 as the day that teams can start fighting.
In California, however, home to four of the league’s 12 programs – Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC – local public health orders are not conducive to starting camps. The three counties where the schools reside (Los Angeles for UCLA and USC, Alameda for Cal and Santa Clara for Stanford) currently prohibit meetings of more than 50 people.
That means, effectively, no camp.
And if there is no camp on August 17, can there be a season by September 26? Even the 17th offers just five weeks to get into play form before the first match week.
If not, then the Pac-12 is the Pac-8 (composed of schools in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington) or, more likely, just not playing this fall. That would make August 17 the potential drop-dead date of the league, and perhaps the sport. And that’s when we even get that far.
“We would probably have to make a decision about the next phase (training camp) and about the season through (the 17th),” a Pac-12 administrative official told Yahoo Sports.
None of this is snow on the Pac-12. It tried to buy time. It seems to be running out.
“One of the things we’ve always tried since day 1, we talked about giving ourselves as much flexibility as possible when the schedule was explained,” the manager said. “It is clear on the day that we have a state that is struggling to manage COVID.”
Almost exactly five months ago (March 12), the NCAA announced the men’s and women’s basketball championships.
It was a shock, a seemingly impossible development.
Now here comes football.
It’s not over yet. It is still possible that the big five leagues will press on. But from coaches to managers, that’s not what’s being discussed right now – it’s what league will take the first step and whether everyone will follow.
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