Could college football be postponed until the spring? Or cancelled altogether. Right now, many questions are unanswered, and the next month may provide some answers for many college students

Will Tigers claw their way back to the top in 2020?

Photo: NBC Sports

... Emmert: "No college football without students on campus"

Kirk Herbstreit: ”I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I'll be so surprised if that happens.”

ESPN Radio

The next month to six weeks are going to be a stressful time for college students and college administrators. For college athletes, it could be a do-or-die period as school wrestle with a plethora of questions,

Two months have passed since coronavirus first began major disruptions to American society, and the nation still lacks a clear timeline back to "normalcy." 

At this point, the college football season appears on track for significant delay, shortening, alteration or perhaps cancellation. The latter could be paralyzing for athletic departments that rely heavily on football revenue. That includes a larger reliance on gate revenue than its pro sports counterparts, which enjoy bulkier TV contracts and are in better position to absorb televised games with empty stands.

Jill Radcliffe, “Can we really expect college football to start on time in the fall?” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 5, 2020

The Journal-Sentinel went through quotations from a variety of national figures, but no one is really certain what will happen with football in 2020. 

First question: Will the schools reopen?

The problem for universities and colleges right now is determining whether or not they can have on-campus classes in the fall. Most have said that those decisions would have to be made by June, 

For any college athletics to take place, health officials must first determine that college campuses are safe to reopen for classes.

The NCAA has said “reliable, rapid diagnostic testing” will be crucial for the return of any athletics. As Dan Wolken of USA Today writes: "Key among the nine 'core principles of resocialization of collegiate sport' is that universities should have plans for temperature checks, testing, isolating and contact tracing and acquiring adequate protective equipment for athletics health care providers." 

Getting students back on campus won't immediately mean sporting events are ready to roll. As Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said, large sporting events will be "the last thing we check off the box."

Jill Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 5, 2020

Herbstreit one of many to be pessimistic

As the quotation above indicates, ESPN football analyst Kirk Herbstreit is very pessimistic that any football will occur in the fall, and he explains why,

"I'll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I'll be so surprised if that happens," Herbstreit said on ESPN radio.

"Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you're 12 to 18 months from a vaccine. I don't know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don't know how you can do it with the optics of it.

"As much as I hate to say it, I think we're scratching the surface of where this thing's gonna go."

Jill Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, May 5, 2020

Some are optimistic

The loss of football could cost between four and eight billion dollars, according to experts. However, some do not think that with that kind of the money on the line, the season could be cancelled,

"All of these financial strains are the reason why it’s hard to see the college football season being canceled outright despite the various challenges ahead," he wrote. "Without a singular voice (like a commissioner for professional leagues), it’s going to be difficult to get everybody — from conference to conference and state to state — on the same page. Many contingency plans are being kicked around, and some have even floated the idea of starting the season in the spring." 

Sam Cooper, “Report: Major public colleges could lose more than $4 billion if college football season cancelled,” Yahoo Sports, April 14, 2020

The NCAA is being realistic

The reality is that the NCAA is trying to adjust in the best way possible, but the top brass realize that without colleges reopening, there will not be a season,

No one knows for sure what college campuses will look like in fall 2020, but it's clear students won't be kicking off their higher education in large auditoriums for convocation, initiating brothers at fraternity parties, or flirting with dorm-mates in mess hall buffet lines. 

Now, there's a good chance many won't be cheering for their sports teams — even remotely — either, NCAA presient Mark Emmert said in an interview with NCAA's college basketball correspondent Andy Katz May 8.  

He said universities are "in clear agreement" that "if you don't have students on campus, you don't have student-athletes on campus. 

Emmert said that while colleges wouldn't have to be back to their pre-coronavirus functioning before sports can return, schools need to treat "the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students."

"And so, if a school doesn't reopen," he added, "then they're not going to be playing sports. It's really that simple." 

Anna Miller, “College Sports won’t return this fall is colleges don’t reopen,” Business Insider, May 9, 2020

The disease may decide for everyone

However, the bottom line is whether or not the coronavirus can disappear by this fall. And that is problematical, 

"Even some of the medications, expecting that they'd be ready by January for any kind of mass distribution, I think is being really overly optimistic and certainly not the vaccine," [Jonathan Meyer, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Washington], said. "I don't really see a delay of three months making much difference. Better than nothing. It would buy some time and result in conditions where decisions don't have to be made quite as soon. But I think that's being overly optimistic."

There's reason to believe a lost season could generate a massive shock wave that's felt for years.

"If we don't have college football, almost every athletic department is going to be bankrupt," a Power 5 coach said to ESPN. "We support every other sport other than maybe men's basketball, so I would think every AD and every commissioner would do anything they can to have the season. For one year, if it's a nontraditional season, who cares?"

“How will coronavirus affect the college football season in 2020?” ESPN, April 20, 2020

Conclusion

The future for college football is definitely problematic in 2020, and it could upset the entire world of college athletics. Who knows what might happen next?

Certainly, I do not, but only hope for the best.