If you’ve noticed on this site I have paused the countdown on “days remaining until Notre Dame football returns” posts. The reason for that is because of advice a neighbor offered me at the start of this pandemic we’re all living through.
That neighbor enlightened me over coffee on the driveway one Sunday morning to the Stockdale Paradox, something I previously knew nothing about.
Since we’ve seen the recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in the southeast, Texas, California and plenty of other places nationally I’ve been trying to really limit my excitement for the chance of college football going off this fall, just to avoid the potential disappointment.
Pete Thamel’s column on Yahoo today only poured more water on my withering flame of hope for college football in 2020. It’s well-worth reading in full but he puts pen to paper on things I’ve fairly certain we’ve all been thinking for quite some time.
Some highlights:
- With the MLS struggling in a supposed bubble, MLB officials botching the testing portion of its return and an increasing amount of pessimism about the prospect of an NFL season, only a medical miracle can save college football this fall.
- Here’s the cruel truth about how college football leaders approached football this fall: The entirety of their plan to return was based on hope. Hope that the COVID-19 would go away. Hope that college campuses wouldn’t be a petri dish for the virus. Hope that they could figure out a way to play a contact sport in a time of mandatory social distancing. Hope for a vaccine to keep players healthy and seats full.
- “Ultimately, no one is playing football in the fall,” said a high-ranking college official. “It’s just a matter of how it unfolds. As soon one of the ‘autonomy five’ or Power Five conferences makes a decision, that’s going to end it.”
There is plenty more in there and that’s why its worth reading in full but obviously a pretty picture is not being painted right now, not that it comes as a surprise to anyone who has opened a newspaper or turned on the news in the last couple weeks.
I’ll stay wishful that something changes and that miracle comes, giving us a lot more than just college football this fall, but I’m certainly not optimistic.