After a crazy few days for college football, what’s the status of each of the conferences. Who’ll play this season, and who won’t?
So, you want to know whether or not your college football conference is playing this fall?
Get in line. This thing is changing by the tweet after the world went bonkers over the last 72 hours.
On Saturday morning the MAC was done, on Sunday evening the entire season was supposedly going to be shut down, and on Monday morning the Dan Patrick Show was telling everyone the Big Ten and Pac-12 were tapping out.
And then everyone got mad.
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Trevor Lawrence let the world to know that college football players want to play college football, college football coaches let the world know that they like college football, and as predictable as Ohio State over Michigan in late November, the president took a sledgehammer to a delicately nuanced situation and politicized it.
The Big Ten pumped the brakes, the rest of the conferences wanted nothing to do with the pounding the B1G was taking, and now there’s supposedly still a chance of a fall football season in some form.
The talk ranged from spring ball in 2021 – total silliness thrown out there to cushion the blow of no 2020 season – to the utter nonsense of Ohio State and Nebraska chirping about finding other places to play. (You’re out of your freaking mind if you think the Big Ten will let the Buckeyes or Huskers play one down in any other league. Two words: TV contracts. Non-conference games, though …)
On a far more serious note, college football fans are about to become heart experts as they learn about the nightmare of a possible COVID-19 side effect called myocarditis.
So now what?
This will be updated on the fly as much as possible, but for now, here’s the best guess on the go-no-go launch status of each conference. All the percentage guesses are based on their apparent respective desires to play or not play if allowed the choice.
ACC
It’s been strangely silent, other than the movement kicked off by Trevor Lawrence.
This is one of the more interesting situations because of the Notre Dame factor. The league has a unique opportunity to have the Irish all to itself for a season, and as long as they’re happy, the league will be happy.
There might be a concern about the status of the other four Power Five conferences, but according to Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, the ACC will “absolutely” play in 2020.
Best Guess Status For 2020: 80% will play
American Athletic Conference
The AAC has the same problem the other Group of Five conferences are dealing with: they’re losing their key revenue-making non-conference dates.
After announcing on August 5th a plan to play eight conference games, the news went back-and-forth throughout Monday. It’s still not a sure thing, but …
The AAC is continuing to move forward with a 2020 fall season after athletic directors met tonight to discuss potential scenarios, sources tell @SINow.
Presidents meet tomorrow, where there is not expected to be a vote, barring significant movement from the Power 5 level.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 11, 2020
Best Guess Status For 2020: 70% will play
Big Ten
The Detroit Free Press went with the story on Monday morning that the Big Ten season was going to be cancelled, but that was before the final be-all-end-all-or-not vote happened.
The Big Ten presidents reportedly were 12-2 – Nebraska and Iowa the outliers – to cancel.
The pushback was swift and strong, with Ohio State, Michigan, and Nebraska the most vocal, at least among fans, coaches and players.
There’s a meeting at 10:30 am ET to make a decision on what to do next.
From all the rumors, news, and opinions flying around, it seems like 1) the medical evaluators don’t think the Big Ten can pull this off, which means 2) the presidents don’t think they can pull this off, which means either 3) the league has a PR disaster coming by cancelling the 2020 season, or 4) the presidents will look like they caved to the pressure of football if they decide to go forward with a campaign.
Oh yeah, and commissioner Kevin Warren is talking about playing in the spring. February football in Minneapolis and East Lansing – yippee.
One key note. The Big Ten is currently scheduled to start its season in early September. while others are expected to start several weeks later. So …
Best Guess Status For 2020: 70% cancel, 30% delay, with a lean towards kicking the can down the road by suggesting a late September start.