As the college football season, or what might possibly be a season, approaches, the landscape becomes even more clouded and bizarre with each passing day due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Pac-12 and Big Ten having already announced that all of their fall sports will be pushed to spring, and the SEC, Big 12 and ACC still clinging to their plans to play this fall, the College Football Playoff committee went ahead and announced on Thursday that the final selection committee rankings of the 2020 season will be released on Sunday, December 20. The committee will also announce the matchups for the Playoff Semifinals at the Rose Bowl Game and Allstate Sugar Bowl, as well as the other New Year’s Six bowl pairings at that time. This announcement came from the University of Iowa’s Athletic Director Gary Barta, who is beginning his first year as committee chair, and of course is a member of the Big Ten, which again isn’t playing football this fall.
First off, let me profess my undying love for my favorite sport of all, college football. I’m a TCU Horned Frog to my core, and very much like my partner at ScoreBoardTX, Rob Scichili, who is a Texas A&M Aggie through and through, we live for the fall when our teams start to play. WE LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Heck, we’re even launching a television show (The College Gridiron Showcase) in a couple weeks with our partners in our production company, Mint Farm Films. We want college football to be played.
But is it actually the smart (or responsible) thing to play games this fall? Or even this spring? That of course is the million dollar question, or actually I should say the multi-billion dollar question. After all, we are talking huge money here. Dollars that support, among other things, scholarships, non-revenue campus sports and overall university improvements. And when it comes to revenue of that magnitude, the lines of judgement between doing what’s right, and doing what’s fiscally right, can become blurred. Rob’s alma mater, for example, averaged $148 million annual revenue from football during the three year period 2016 – 2018, the most of any program in the nation. That’s a big chunk of change, and impacts Texas A&M in many ways. It’s not so easy to just wave bye-bye to that.
The Big Ten, which has two of the top five revenue producing football programs (Michigan at #3 and Ohio State at #5) decided ultimately that the safety of the athletes outweighed the potential loss of revenue for this season. The conference’s first-year commissioner Kevin Warren seemed especially concerned that five Big Ten athletes had already been diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart caused by the COVID-19 virus. “There has been a lot of discussion about myocarditis,” Warren told the Big Ten Network after the league’s official announcement of postponement. “Any time you’re talking about the heart of anyone, but especially a young person, you have to be concerned. We want to make sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to keep our student-athletes safe.”
But not all of the Big Ten members seem to be unified in what was supposed to be their collective stance. Take for instance the University of Nebraska, who’s chancellor, president, athletic director and head football coach released the following joint statement, “We are very disappointed in the decision by the Big Ten Conference to postpone the fall football season, as we have been and continue to be ready to play. We will continue to consult with medical experts and evaluate the situation as it emerges. We hope it may be possible for our student athletes to have the opportunity to compete.”
So are the Cornhuskers preparing to go rogue? This is where it gets even more intriguing as the rumor mill has begun with whispers of another realignment of the college football landscape. Nebraska back to the Big 12? Perhaps a reunion with their old Oklahoma Sooner pals? After all, the two schools already have a contract in place that will have the Cornhuskers and Sooners playing next year in Norman, and in Lincoln in 2022. And maybe Iowa would follow suit? Get paired up in-conference with their in-state rivals the Iowa State Cyclones? At this point anything seems possible.
So what about the decision of the Big Ten and Pac-12 to just “postpone” the season until spring? What exactly does that mean for the College Football Playoffs for example? No Ohio State? (NCCA pre-season rank of #2). No Oregon? (NCCA pre-season rank of #6). No Penn State? (NCCA pre-season rank of #8). Would fans tune in to see a national champion crowned from just the SEC, Big 12 and ACC? With Clemson (#1), Alabama (#3), LSU (#4), Georgia (#5) and Oklahoma (#7) still in the mix, I don’t see why not. Sure you’ll lose some diehard alumni viewers from schools not playing, but overall I think it would mostly look like business as usual.
But what about fan attendance for these games? What happens to the season ticket holders of these programs? Or ticket buyers in general? Will fans be allowed in the stadiums? MLB, the NHL and NBA all made the decision to play in empty buildings, with the NBA and NHL even going so far as to create a self-contained “bubble” for their athletes and teams, something that would be next to impossible to pull off in college football. In the Big 12 for example, Oklahoma and TCU are looking to allow 25% fan capacity in their stadiums. So who gets those tickets? Remember, after-all, pretty much all tickets sold in Norman are sold as season tickets which have been in the hands of individuals, families and companies for decades. Who gets bumped? Who doesn’t? And what about safety protocols for the fans that attend the games? Can they be kept safe? That’s something the professional leagues obviously didn’t think was possible. Basic things like concession lines and bathroom capacity and crowding need to be taken into consideration. Who monitors that? And what if there’s a lightning strike during a game? Protocol mandates all fans head for cover in the concourse. How would that work within social distancing guidelines?
So many questions still to be answered, and so little time before the SEC, Big 12 and ACC expect to kick things off for the 2020 season. Will these remaining three conferences of the Power 5 make it to opening week, only then to get shut down after a game or two due to spreading of the virus? It’s anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure, this season won’t be like anything we’ve seen before when it comes to college football.
