4. Schedules are likely going to return to near-normal
College football might not snap back to 2019 right away, but unless there’s some mutated super-version sequel of the coronavirus, the schedules should be more like normal.
Conferences didn’t want to schedule a whole slew of non-conference games last season because of liability, protocols, and because the home sides didn’t really want to pay up if there weren’t any fans in the stands to generate revenue. This year, coming up with schedules will be a little easier, but they’re still going to be written in pencil.
Here’s the one key thing to remember – conferences don’t want to do the Conference Only schedule thing again.
You think the Mississippi States, Louisvilles and Purdues of the world want to bang their heads against the wall to hopefully get to .500? They’re going to want their non-conference games to fatten up the records, but that only matters if the fans are coming back.
So this offseason, 1) expect the schedules to be created as normal once the conferences figure out their own slates, while 2) the colleges will be far better prepared this time around to make sure the customers come through the door.
And then everyone will cross their fingers, which then means …