College Football's Wishing Itself to Happen This Season

It was easy to say the noble thing back in March:

If the campuses are closed, there will be no college football this fall.

Now that summer is fast approaching, when 7-on-7 happens and late August looms, there are lotsa sounds in the ivory towers of OGs clearing their throats.

That hard truth is college football is reminding them who's who in the zoo.

 

Keeping in mind there are lies, damned lies, and statistics, there's really no sure sign that the Covid-19 pandemic is leveling off or even about to level off.

With too many state leaders refusing to realize that the coronavirus is apolitical, the USA never has had a unified response to it -- much less accurate measurements -- likely meaning any possible second wave will just be an extension of the first one.

So how does one truly determine the health risks of college football being played this season?

 

Apparently, that's as good as any.

Which is why ...

• The SEC and Big XII have voted to open their facilities for voluntary workouts next month when the NCAA ban on campus activies expires, and
• The Pac-12 declared athletes were safer on campus and decided to do the same.

These conferences aren't denying reality, they're just daring it. As Big XII commish Bob Bowlsby put it:

It isn’t a matter of when we’re going to have outbreaks.
It’s a matter of how big they are and how we go about triaging.

 

For the players, this fits their attitude. Dudes are young and strong with the 18- to 22-year-olds' feeling of invulnerability.

Then there's the factor of how fleeting a college career is, not to mention that they're not getting any younger in the eyes of NFL scouts.

For the schools, it's impossible to ignore the impact that -- with few exceptions -- football media rights carry the rest of their athletic programs, not to mention have a solid influence on alumni donations to both athletic programs and the general fund.

 

As with any other sport, the significant issue's gonna be testing.

No sport in North America has larger contingents of athletes than college football, where non-con home games alone can feature 100 of them in uniform.

Questions still remain as to how programs will approach this issue. For example:

• Is prioritizing players, coaches, and staff over other more vulnerable members of the community ethically right?
• Will this cost vis à vis the bottom line at some programs make a season worth the health risk?
• What's the protocol for players who test positive, and will it be uniform across all conferences?

 

Fans want to see this happen. So do the players, coaches, programs, and schools.

It's a way of life for many, not to mention a cultural staple in the South and other hotbeds.

And it's an economic lifeline for small communities hosting large universities like Clemson, Oxford, West Lafayette, Ames, and Pullman.

But most of all, it's likely to be a headache for those charged with making the season happen.

 

Odds are strong whatever is cobbled together will be less than perfect. But it'll happen, because college football.

Unless, of course, Covid-19 says it won't.