We are entering a Push Push and Hope college athletics cycle. Schedules are being delayed, pushed back in the hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will lessen enough to allow for an appearance of a normal college football season.
The Push Push and Hope strategy was first adopted by Pac-12 and Big Ten, who entered into conference-only scheduling deals earlier this month and are expected to start their seasons later in September.
The strategy is expected to be adopted in some form by the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 in the coming weeks, as those leagues are in the process of formulating the best ways to move forward.
The NCAA Board of Governors entered the Push Push and Hope conga line on Friday afternoon, presenting a decision on postponing the fall championships until its next meeting on August 4.
“We all remain deeply concerned about the infection trend lines we see,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. “It is clear that the format of our championships will have to change if they are carried out safely and fairly.”
As the group met on Friday afternoon, news emerged from the state of Michigan that pierced the hope portion of the Push Push and Hope strategy.
Michigan State announced that its entire soccer team will be quarantined for 14 days after two staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
The 14 days will put Michigan State at a competitive disadvantage as it will miss nearly two weeks of the 20-hour practice weeks designed to prepare players for camp on August 7. Michigan State players won’t be back until August 7. , which could raise concerns about health problems about not having the same time to get in shape as their colleagues at the conference.
The CFP 2020 logo is displayed on the field before the college football playoff title match between LSU and Clemson. (Photo by Todd Kirkland / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
A senior conference official summed up the Michigan state problem in this way on Friday: “The barrier to all of this [returning to play] is what happened in the state of Michigan today. Quarantine is the problem. “
The good news for the future of FBS soccer on Friday came with the NCAA decision on the fall sports decision, which really ends up being a victory for college soccer optics and little else. The decision to postpone the fall championships would not have directly affected college football in a big way. The College Football Playoff is really just a television contract that essentially operates outside of the NCAA’s financial realm.
The decision of the NCAA Board of Governors was notable mainly for what could have happened if the fall championships had been postponed. That scenario would have gone against the wishes of the Power Five commissioners and the Football Oversight Committee, making sure the NCAA reaffirmed its well-deserved reputation for being clumsy, outdated, and inefficient.
Throughout the week, commissioners, athletic directors and coaches worried about the possibility that the championships could be postponed by a group of the Board of Governors that includes former NBA star Grant Hill, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the president of Spalding University. “Do you know the scene in the bar room in ‘Star Wars?’ “He joked a Power Five AD on Friday. “That’s kind of how that room is.”
No one would want to see that fight at the bar. And the question of why they might make a decision that affects the SEC is for another day. Fortunately, it did not happen. After a week of being slapped by politicians in Washington DC earlier this week, Emmert may get a small victory by not infuriating many of the NCAA’s most powerful schools.
As college leaders move forward trying to navigate the act of trying to preserve the billions at stake this season, playing soccer in the fall would have been even more awkward if the collegiate governing body decided on July 24 to have no championship. (And probably all fall sports have been postponed.) It would be surprising if the NCAA didn’t come to this decision, but given that the championships are four months away, it’s reasonable to pause for a few weeks.
With leagues like the Ivy League, Big East, and America East that have already announced they are delaying the fall seasons, the NCAA decision seems inevitable.
Until then, the Push Push and Hope strategy continues. More soccer news is expected next week from the SEC and the ACC, and Big 12 presidents are likely to wait a bit longer. It’s hard to overstate how crazy opinions are about playing in the fall. Many remain pessimistic about sailing a season, but there is a decent percentage of coaches, athletic directors, and presidents who seem ready to at least try to move forward until a problem big enough arises that forces them to stop.
On Friday, college football in a big way had some optical coverage to continue hoping to play. All while watching the stage in the state of Michigan that could derail a season if it arose in October.
What we’ll discover in the coming weeks, especially with the start of camp, will be whether all the pushing leads to a path to play, or just serves as a way to delay the inevitable.
