Roundtable: Will football season be impacted by the pandemic?
The NCAA acted very quickly as COVID-19 began to spread across United States, canceling all spring sport championship events on the same day that it called off its men's and women's basketball tournament. Even the College World Series, which was more than three months away at the time, was canceled. More recently, the International Olympic Committee has postponed the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were set to begin on July 24.
The 2020 college football season is scheduled to start on Saturday, Aug. 29. Notre Dame and Navy will play each other in Dublin as part of that opening weekend, with six other games taking place as well. The season will really begin in earnest the following week, with several high-profile matchups on the docket, like USC-Alabama, Florida State-West Virginia and Michigan-Washington.
With the NCAA canceling the College World Series three months ahead of time and the IOC pulling the plug on the 2020 Summer Olympics nearly four months out, how concerned should college football fans be that its season will be impacted as well?
The RedRaiderSports.com staff shares their thoughts in today's roundtable discussion.
CHRIS LEVEL: I guess I just choose not to go there in my mind yet. I need for there to be a light at the end of this bizarre tunnel we're all in and football season is it. I realize things need to be back to normal by July so these teams can practice, and I am wondering if they will get any kind of structured offseason. There are a lot of questions and things seem to change daily but I'm going to remain positive with the football season.
I realize that I'd be naive to dismiss not having football altogether as an option and I know some coaches around the country are starting to worry about it a bit. But I choose to believe we'll have it and it will be glorious.
AARON DICKENS: Maybe I have just been rapidly conditioned to expect things that would have been unheard of three months ago, but I would be stunned at this point if the 2020 college football season is not touched in some significant way by the coronavirus pandemic. It seems fairly widely accepted that a vaccine is still 12-18 months away and public health professionals have suggested that we will have to practice some measure of social distancing until that treatment is ready. If that is the case, I can't imagine that officials would sign off on people gathering in large numbers at high school, college and professional football games across the country every week. I hope like hell I'm wrong.
BEN GOLAN: I would say I am pretty concerned that college football will be affected by the pandemic.
There’s no way of knowing which way this thing goes, but the way the NCAA was able to cancel the College World Series three months in advance means they expect it to last at least until the middle of the summer, and who knows from there.
Even if games aren’t postponed or canceled, and they might be, how will incoming freshmen, preseason camp and practice times be affected? What effect will the cancellation of spring ball have?
These are just a few questions I have regarding the 2020 college football season.
BRANDON SOLIZ: Usually, there’s some sort of time frame when it comes to delays and postponements but this situation is just different. Right now, I’m pretty worried this will somehow affect the season. No spring football and maybe even no summer offseason wouldn't put teams in the right position to compete to their fullest. Will coaches use that as a crutch or bring it up as a negative to playing the season? Who knows, but I can see it being brought up. Players will all handle workouts on their own different from one another and will lack the resources to prepare for a full helmet-to-helmet year. Fingers crossed that this obviously doesn’t change too much but I’m not feeling good about it.
BILLY WATSON: Well, the 2020 Summer Olympic Games just got postponed. That’s not a good sign. However, I don’t see much of an impact being made on the college football, seeing as it is more than five months away. You never know what could go on between now and then, and people should follow the instructions put in place by all levels on government, but I am hopeful this outbreak dies down by then so we can return to our normal lives.