“The College Football season is done.” – Power 5 source
Power 5 source to @Stadium: “College football season is done. I don’t think everyone immediately follows MAC, but it gives other league presidents 1 more reason to make an easier decision. Biggest thing is unknown long-term impact of COVID & liability issues involved" — Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 8, 2020
Well that sucks. The MAC announced that all fall sports would be postponed due to the COVID pandemic. So what’s next for college football? The Big 10 released their schedule just a couple of days ago. The SEC has a schedule of sorts, PAC-12 released a schedule as well, so now what? Much like when the NHL and NBA were postponed fans just have to wait and see what happens next. It’s a miserable holding pattern.
I hate to say it, like I really do, but I don’t think a college football season is happening. Think of the logistics of keeping an entire football team healthy. The NFL has a ridiculous amount of protocols in place to protect their players and several have still gotten sick. The NCAA can put in just as many protocols as the NFL but it wouldn’t matter. The players are on campus going to classes around students that don’t have to follow the same protocols. It’s been proven by the NBA and NHL that a bubble system works while the MLB proves traveling across the country going stadium to stadium doesn’t. College football still plans on traveling to stadiums on conference only schedules. The players will be at risk of contracting COVID during travel and while they are on campus being a student.
I understand why the NCAA wants a college football season to happen. Money. An absolute fuck load of money will be lost by conferences, schools, athletic departments, and even the cities the schools are in. Unfortunately that’s 2020. The loss of revenue sucks for the NCAA, but I feel no sympathy for them. A billion dollar non profit can afford to lose money for a year, and if they’re so hell bent on putting student athletes at risk of contracting COVID than pay them for their troubles.
I want to watch college football in the fall. I really do, but realistically I don’t think it could happen. Even if it does happen it will be wildly irresponsible of the NCAA to ask these student athletes to risk their health for free while the NCAA rakes in millions upon millions of dollars. They do it every single year, but in a year with a global airborne pandemic it’s a little different.