There can be no denying the coronavirus has changed the United States and the world. It has certainly changed the world of high school and college football, but exactly how it’s going to affect the interplay between the two, in the realm of recruiting, has yet to be determined. The path forward has not been decided by several states and there is still a strong voice advocating for some form of a season. This creates three distinct categories of recruits: Those who can sit out a year and thrive in college; those who need the value of playing or will benefit from playing four years in high school, and those who are on the border between the two sides.
The notable difference here is that one has rarely seen an athlete who can sit out a senior season and still be recruited at a high level. Now we have this crop of athletes who were premier talents before the pandemic started. They have the option of sitting out their senior years, but still graduating on time and being eligible to enroll early. The longer it takes the country to get it right, the longer college football faces this problem, but we know the first class affected by this will the 2020-21 kids. There simply doesn’t seem to be a consensus plan — a widely unified plan — which is likely for the upcoming season in any state. The early signing period for December of 2020 could be called off. It could be modified. No one truly knows.
Yet, it’s important to note that this problem isn’t likely to go away as soon as COVID-19 dies down. Right now people are making coronavirus plans that don’t include mass gatherings or many sports; these plans will be well underway when society reaches that point. They won’t just disappear, they’ll finish their plans to the nearest sustainable point and then reshape their plan for the next chapter of their lives.
Because there’s so much we don’t know about the coronavirus and this pandemic’s future, it becomes impossible to shape or plan the future of athletes, blue-chip or otherwise. The virus doesn’t care, and the longer it goes — the longer between these athletes and their return to the playing field — the greater the potential is to create some very interesting disaster scenarios. But it’s much better to focus on the positive and the hope that society will have found some success by winter or late spring. It’s definitely going to change recruiting, however.