Cavalcade of Whimsy College Football Season Debut: Oh That Wacky Big Ten

College football during a global pandemic, the wacky Big Ten, and the craziest off-season ever in the 2020 debut of the Cavalcade of Whimsy.

What I think, know and believe about the college football world during a global pandemic, the wacky Big Ten, and the craziest offseason ever in the 2020 debut of the Cavalcade of Whimsy.


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Check out all the past Cavalcades

Sorry if this column sucks, it’s not my fault …

It’s those fear-porn peddling sports media people, with all of their fancy schmancy facts based on things being told to them by experts and specialists.

Pinkos.

[jwplayer PkCtjTd4-boEY74VG]

The Wacky Big Ten Offseason
The Players Should Be Demanding …
5 Footballey Opinions
Sure-Thing Picks of the Century

Think, Know, Believe, Eat, Pray Love, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Little, Yellow, Different, Better, Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV …

After all of whatever that was over the last seven months, we kickoff the 2020 Cavalcade with the pretentiousness pedal pushed to the floor.

Welcome to the debut of a new segment: I Think, I Know, I Believe.

I Think: You desperately need and deserve a break from the real world, and you need college football – issues and all – as an escape.

I Know: I do.

I Believe: After this week, I’ll keep it about college football as much as possible throughout this season. Welcome to the bubble. Clean up after yourselves.

I Think: “Your” a moron if you believe the college football media doesn’t want college football.

I Know: The college football media doesn’t have the slimmest sliver of power and influence you think it has.

I Believe: I don’t even have power or influence over the kid at Chipotle to give me an honest serving of barbacoa in my bowl.

I Think: In the time of a global pandemic, colleges have absolutely zero clue how to run school as we normally know it.

I Know: Regular class life is or will be disrupted all across the country.

I Believe: College football isn’t regular college.

I Think: Optics are in the eye of the beholder.

I Know: The optics of college football being played if regular students aren’t on campus are awful.

I Believe: Optics my ass to 99% of college football fans once the ball is kicked off.

I Think: Compared to the rest of the normal student population, during the season, college football players at least have the structure, constant medical attention and supervision, and the focused-mindset goal to not do something stupid.

I Know: College students gonna go college students.

I Believe: You can’t negotiate with a virus, or college students with a taste of freedom.

I Think: It’s really, really gross and disgusting to use the COVID-19 nightmare to analyze the potential of wins and losses.

I Know: The team that keeps its car on the track and can finish the race without a slew of in-season infections will be the most successful when it comes to wins and losses.

I Believe: Everyone will have to use the COVID-19 nightmare to analyze the potential of wins and losses, and it’s going to be icky.

I Think: You can’t socially distance and play football. All the rules for mask-wearing and all the other protocols on the field are ridiculous.

I Know: College football isn’t inherently doable now just because no one on Central Arkansas or Austin Peay passed out from the virus during the game.

I Believe: Twitter needs to flag those who thought they were original by posting how FCS teams played college football while the Big Ten can’t figure it out.

I Think: Almost all college-age students and football players who get the virus will turn out to be just fine. If they get it, they’ll quarantine, get past it, and will be out there doing what they do a few weeks later.

I Know: “Almost” isn’t everyone. Way too many people – especially a certain creepy sports sect that pushes false equivalency schtick – are way, way, WAY too cost-of-doing-business-cool with the death of almost 200,000 Americans.

I Believe: Those who think this is no big whoop don’t know the people I do – of various age groups – who can’t shake it from their systems several months after getting sick. They’re not going to die from it, but between the debilitating headaches, the side effects leading to hospital trips, and/or simply not being able to function, pray you don’t ever know what that’s like.

I Think: We’re this close to having a super-fast, cheap, and reliable test that on a mass scale that will change everything.

I Know: College football will get back something close to normal once the tests becomes an easy part of the routine,

I Believe: SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is banking on those tests being ready by late September. The Big Ten could save face and pivot in a hurry if these tests really are in place over the next month or so.

I Think: The SEC isn’t quite the 100% sure-thing to play that y’all might think it is. It’s being careful, and it’s being smart by waiting until late September.

I Know: The Big Ten got dunked on by the ACC, SEC and Big 12.

I Believe: All of the Power Five conferences came to the same conclusion, but the instant the Big Ten announced it was postponing the season, everything changed because, like everything else, this fell along partisan lines.

I Think: Justin Fields really does want to play.

I Know: He’s the starting quarterback for any team but Clemson if he chooses to transfer.

I Believe: If all the people who signed Fields’ petition gave him $500, that’s not even close to what he’ll make in career earnings if he just spends the next several months staying safe and healthy.

I Think: The 2020 college football season is going to finish as scheduled.

I Know: The 2020 college football season is going to start as scheduled.

I Believe: The 2020 college football season is going to be a flaming hot mess in between.

I Think: I believe the 2021 college football season will be almost back to normal.

I Know: I think the 2021 college football season will be almost back to normal.

I Believe: I know the 2021 college football season will be almost back to normal.

The Wacky Big Ten Offseason
The Players Should Be Demanding …
5 Footballey Opinions
Sure-Thing Picks of the Century

NEXT: Oh that wacky Big Ten …

College Football Cavalcade Podcast: Angry Big Ten Parents, SEC Schedule, Spring Football

The Big Ten parents aren’t happy, the SEC schedule has two key issues, and spring football, in the College Football Cavalcade podcast.

The Big Ten is getting it from the parents and players, the SEC schedule has two key issues, and the viability of spring football, all in the College Football Cavalcade podcast.


College Football Cavalcade Podcast

Three segments: 1. Big Ten parents and players, and the problem the B1G has on its hands.

2. The two issues with the SEC schedule that was just released.

3. Can there really be a spring football season?

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Click to listen to the College Football Cavalcade Podcast …

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The 2020 College Football Season Is Trying To Break Up With You (But Doesn’t Know How)

The 2020 college football season is close to being cancelled, but it keeps fans and players hanging on.

The 2020 college football season is close to being cancelled, but it keeps fans and players hanging on.


It’s not you, it’s the 2020 college football season.

You’re fine. It’s not anything you did, but the 2020 college football season is trying to break up with you.

It’s not because of your politics.

It’s not because you aren’t supportive.

It’s not because you forgot to wear a mask that one time when picking up your salted caramel & banana cream pancake breakfast from Denny’s.

There are circumstances beyond everyone’s control, and it’s just not working out.

[jwplayer muPr0F4N]

I didn’t want to be the one to say it – because your relationship seemed so promising just a few days ago – but the 2020 college football season is a hot mess, and you’re probably better off with that really cute 2021 thing that’s about to come by in a snap.

But the 2020 college football season just can’t let you go.

It’s still wants to go out to dinner, it might want to take a trip in the spring, and it’s saying it might want to hang out in certain ways, but a B1G part of the relationship probably won’t be around anymore.

I’m sorry. Everyone wants to see you two kids get together, but it’s not looking promising.

There are other college football seasons in the sea.

The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 1

2020 has been awful. It’s been disastrous, it’s been horrific, it’s been tragic, it’s been heartbreaking, it’s been unfathomable, and it’s also been revolutionary.

Now, 2020 has taken a new turn to the stupid.

YOU … HAD … FOUR … MONTHS, college football.

Where was the coordinated plan? Where was the idea to keep the players safe? Where were the outside-the-box thoughts and ideas to do this responsibly?

This is only a multi-billion dollar business, and yet the college presidents and athletic directors came up with a fat load of nothing.

And the real kicker? It’s not even the NCAA’s fault – at least not entirely – and it really doesn’t have anything to do with state-by-state policies on mask wearing and social distancing.

Most of the Big Ten and Pac-12 states were ahead of things when it came to masks and trying to do what’s recommended, and they’re the conferences reportedly leading the charge to shut it all down because they don’t know how to come up with a safe season.

Each conference was left to come up with a plan, and no one had it. No one had any idea how to make college football go. (That’s partly because the schools can’t figure out how to make college go, either, as more than a very, very expensive streaming service, but that’s for another day.)

You had four months, and now we’re here.

The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 2

Don’t say “the MAC” as a reason why the Power 5 programs are on the brink of cancelling the season, or I’m hanging up. The Power 5 does whatever the Power 5 wants to do.

Don’t you dare say “the media” as a reason why the Power 5 programs are on the brink of cancelling the season, or I’m hanging up triple-hard.

Forget your politics for a moment. Are you THAT far gone to really believe that a college president is going to take the most unpopular stance possible by voting to cancel a college football season – which almost certainly would lead to a death threats, possible job loss, and waving goodbye to a whole lot of fund raising – because of a few articles from some sportswriter who you actually think doesn’t like sports?

Don’t say “a vaccine” as a reason why the can might be kicked to spring of 2021, or I’m hanging up with with condescension.

Really, Big Ten? You want to play college football in Minneapolis, Madison, Ann Arbor, etc., in (bleep)ing February?

Really, college football? You’re concerned about player safety now, but you’re interested in the idea of what amounts to ten months of the sport in a calendar year? You really think you can finish up a spring season in May, and turn around three months later and kick things off again?

Oh, and by the way, Big Ten, what the hell are you doing?

First, you release your full schedule on a Tuesday. It’s built with the big showdowns early and openings later, with the assumption that some games will be postponed. And then, just a few days later, you decide you might want to cancel everything?

You know what you want to do – why didn’t you just end this a week ago?

There’s a global pandemic. People would be mad, but everyone gets it, even if they say they don’t. But now, Big Ten, you’re too chicken to simply cancel your own season because you want the optics of other conferences to join you?

And … you’re so worried about playing a season, but YOU’RE STILL ALLOWING FALL PRACTICES TO GO ON?!

The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 3

I’m just that dumb to still believe that there might be some semblance of a season. This take is probably freezing cold by the time you read it, but I still don’t buy into the idea that all the conferences are 100% on board with dropping the 2020 campaign.

I’m just that dumb to believe that some conference out there is seeing what’s happening as an opportunity.

“Go ahead, Big Ten and probably the Pac-12 – quit. More TV revenue, attention, and big-time transfers for us.”

I’m just that dumb to go from 47% convinced three weeks ago to 99.3% that the College Football Playoff will be Liberty and the three service academies.

I’m just that dumb to tin-foil hat believe that – at least in some way – the conferences are doing all of this to squash the player rights movement before it gets any traction.

The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 4

I write for COLLEGE FOOTBALL News. Of course I want a 2020 college football season, but I only want it if it’s as safe as can reasonably be played.

At the end of the day, everyone, it’s just a game, and it’s supposed to be fun.

We don’t know the long-term effects of this horrific virus on the human body. The odds are overwhelming that a college-age player who gets this won’t die, but that’s not really the point.

Yeah, they’re young adults, and yeah, they’re almost all on scholarship, but they’re not professional athletes. Each one is someone’s kid who was sent off to college.

That’s why, to be brutally honest, I feel oily going too hard backing the #WeWantToPlay trending movement, since I professionally benefit from these guys – who aren’t going to get paid – who just want to go out there and have fun.

With that said, as someone who’s 100% for players’ rights …

College players – now, more than ever – desperately need professional representation looking out for their best interests.

Negotiation 101: Don’t give up your leverage.

You can’t look all desperate with your #WeWantToPlay thing, and then come up with a list of demands – as reasonable as they are.

Among those demands …

“Establish universal mandated health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college-athletes against COVID-19.”

Yeah, no (bleep). Guys, if they could’ve figured THAT out, we wouldn’t be here. And because of that …

Nah, we don’t want to lose you, 2020 college football season.

You treat us like crap, you tease us, you’re probably devastating to our health, and now you’re threatening to leave.

It’s okay. If you love something, set it free, and if it comes back it’s yours, or something creepy like that.

College football, we’re still here for you – even if you need a break so everything until everything is okay.

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College Football Cavalcade: Pac-12 Players Boycott Threat. How It Could – And Couldn’t – Work

The Pac-12 football players are threatening a boycott unless their list of demands is met. It has a chance to work … maybe.

The Pac-12 football players are threatening a boycott unless their list of demands is met. It has a chance to work … maybe.


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

Actually, I AM your entertainment, I’m not a human being.

[jwplayer zttcjcuk]

But they have their head over the skis by demanding the release of the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement

Pac-12 players, before I begin …

I’m with you.

I’m 100% on your side, hopeful that your threats to boycott the season end up sparking a much-needed reboot of the college athletic model.

I’ve been a players’ rights advocate since CFN started back in 1998, and I interviewed Ramogi Huma before most of you were born, but …

You’re about to get totally creamed unless you get three things at the highest of levels.

Representation, representation, representation.

You actually think the sport that’s been rolling over the last 150 years is going to buckle now?

You think a major conference will have any sort of a problem waiting out the next six months in order to keep its self-serving system in place?

Again, I’M WITH YOU, Pac-12 players, but exactly what kind of leverage do you really think you have here?

All of your points and demands in the letter published by The Players Tribune at least deserve to be discussed, but you’re going to lose unless you have someone who can punch in the weight class with the Pac-12 and the NCAA.

There’s some hinting at an agent or lawyer being the “representation” when it comes to liability waivers, but you also need a big-time professional specialist – no, I won’t make any reference to Spencer Strasmore – whose high-powered sports management firm eats major corporate litigation and negotiation battles for a mid-morning snack.

Go it alone, and the potential to get destroyed in the PR battle is enormous. It starts with …

The possible second Great Depression holding on line 2

Players, read … the … room.

You’re never wrong with the Jerry Jones five keys to sales success – ask for the money, and forget the other four – but here’s one of your big misfires in your demand letter.

“Because we should be included in equitably sharing the revenue our talents generate, especially in a pandemic, #WeAreUnited.”

You’re demanding this NOW?!

WHAT REVENUE?

YES, Pac-12 players, you deserve a cut of a pie. YES, you deserve to have full rights to your names, images, and likenesses. YES, schools do generate revenue off of licensing and other ways that you should get a part of, but in case you haven’t noticed, college sports in the fall of 2020 are nothing more than a delusional dream at the moment.

What, you’re going to boycott the season if you don’t get a cut of the football revenue from a 2020 campaign that either won’t happen, or will happen with no fans in the stands?

You think if you boycott playing football in 2020 there’s going to be the slightest appetite for any of your demands being met in 2021 – if things are close to normal again – when schools are trying to piece things back together?

Do you not see athletic departments all over the country slashing and cutting everything possible?

You might be totally in the right, but when it comes to optics and the national focus on school and colleges right now, you could lose everything on this alone considering every college parent is freaking the freak out over 1) sending the kid away to college while 2) blowing tens of thousands of dollars for a glorified streaming service.

Remember, Pac-12 players. The rich old people at the table became rich old people by being very, very good at this

Players, the possibility of college football happening in 2020 is hanging by the barest of threads. Don’t think for a moment that the Pac-12 – who’s this close to cancelling the whole thing anyway – won’t steamroll you and your demands by coming out with something like this if it thinks it can’t and won’t have a season …

“We hear you, Pac-12 student-athletes, and we’re looking forward to having an in-depth and meaningful dialogue to address each and every one of these issues. Out of concern for your safety and health in this time of an unprecedented global pandemic, and with an abundance of caution, we’re cancelling the 2020 fall athletic calendar for all sports. Student-athlete safety has, and always will be, the Pac-12’s top priority.”

Boycott movement over.

Or, maybe the Pac-12 chooses to go forward no matter who’s playing and sends out a press release like …

“We acknowledge the concerns of our student-athletes whose voices must be heard in these unprecedented times. We respect the wishes of those who choose to opt out for any reason as we push forward in what we hope to be a safe and exciting 2020 college football campaign.”

And then the Pac-12 plays its ten-game conference-only schedule, even if its with teams half full of walk-ons.

Boycott movement really over.

Then what? What’s your play, Pac-12 players?

And then, while you’re looking for a massive overhaul in the revenue model, there’s this from your letter of demands …

“End lavish facility expenditures and use some endowment funds to preserve all sports.”

Yeaaaaaah, okay … how many players chose a given school partly because of the kick-ass locker room and snazz facilities? (Hey, Oregon, how’s it goin’?)

It’s not like Stanford just whacked a slew of sports for something to do. Players, you might be demanding that they return, but while you’re fighting for social justice and change, you’re really trying to force a shift in the endowment system for … non-revenue sports?

Whatever. Go for it, Pac-12 players. You’re in the right, but …

Start with the sure-thing battles you can win.

Again … representation.

Focus all of your arguments on the demanded third party representation for your safety when it comes to COVID testing, protocols, and best practices.

If you say you don’t want to go to fall workouts because you don’t trust the schools’ ability to keep you safe from the virus – boom. No one outside of the super-cool cornonabro deniers will say boo about you wanting to protect your health and well-being.

Get what’s there for the taking and don’t try to get too cute – that includes trying to redo the collegiate athletic budgets.

Complaining about the salaries of coaches and Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott – which you’re SO right about – will be greeted with a condescending laugh finished off with a sneer. They might temporarily cut their own salaries for PR purposes, but overall, if there’s something beyond a non-starter, that’s it.

[lawrence-related id=517122]

Several of the other demands are more than gettable.

The NIL battle is almost all a positive. It’s going to take a fully-focused effort and – to be totally obnoxious by further hammering the already submerged nail – the proper representation to work with a Congress that appears to have a friendly lean to the players’ side.

You can win that.

A task force of leaders and experts to help end racial injustice in college sports and society is a given. That’s an easy win.

Participation in the charity work of your choosing, allow for a one-time player transfer without punishment, and the ability to return to school seven days after the draft if a player changes his mind about leaving early. You can win all of those.

The 50% revenue cut has zero shot, and the six-year health insurance idea after eligibility – which, I’d argue, doesn’t go nearly far enough – isn’t happening, but …

Someone has to try.

There’s no perfect way to do these things, and I do hope I’m wrong and the Pac-12 doesn’t put this away on the opening drive, but there’s something here to work off of. You started the discussion.

Thanks, Pac-12 players. Go for it.

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2020 College Football Season. This Might Be Really, Really Awesome

If it happens, it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be weird, and it’s going to be awesome … if they actually play college football in 2020

If it happens, it’s going to be fun, it’s going to be weird, and it’s going to be awesome … if they actually play college football in 2020.


@PeteFiutak

Do you realize what we might be in for if this college football season gets played?

No, really. Are you able to fully grasp what it might mean if this thing set in motion by the Big Ten actually works?

[jwplayer z06Wb7Fe]

I’m a world-half-sucks sort of person who believes the beautiful music I’m hearing is coming from the piano about to fall on my head, but I’m allowing myself this one shining moment – I’m taking that phrase back from the dopiest lyrics of any song this side of “We Built This City” – to believe that maybe, potentially, possibly, we’re in for something incredible.

Of course I’m well aware that 1) sports don’t matter and 2) I’m about to get fired up about Christmas presents under the tree that might never be opened, but …

Enough non-stop news – at least for a bit.

Enough 30 for 30s that remind me that I had a lot of fun in the 1990s.

Enough Netflix. Enough HBO Max. Enough whatever the Peacock thing is going to be with all those shows on regular TV that I wouldn’t watch on a dare.

[lawrence-related id=515929]

We all need sports. Good sports, and not the I’m-watching-because-it’s-on sort of thing.

Start with what a baseball season should be – a perfectly-sized 60 games.

Once the whining stops about the food and hotels, the NBA season is going to be non-stop fantastic.

The PGA Championship will get August going, and the Indy 500 and tennis version of the US Open will end the month.

The golf US Open will be in September, The Masters will be played in November, and NFL training camps are right around the corner.

And college football is coming.

Again, understand what’s about to happen.

Maybe this will signal a shift in the business model, and maybe this is when the conferences ditch the NCAA and live life on their own for good – that’s all for another day.

If what the Big Ten is proposing is a go, we’re going to get ten games per team of Big Ten on Big Ten action with no FCS, no cupcakes, no waste.

[lawrence-related id=515894]

Bring that to the rest of the Power Five, too.

Once the other conferences kick it in, a ten-game all-SEC schedule? No mid-November games against Wofford, or UT Martin, or Alabama A&M, or Vanderbilt? Oh, wait … but to borrow the league’s phrase, it really will mean more.

The Big 12 already plays a full nine-game all-conference schedule, but the ACC keeping things in house with Notre Dame playing even more games within its friends-with-benefits structure? Absolutely.

Back in May, the Pac-12 threw around the idea of playing an 11-game all conference slate. Cool. Keep it out of the dark.

This all goes for the Group of Five conferences, too.

If you’re an investor, you want MAC football every Tuesday, and maybe Friday night Mountain West, and an all-American Athletic Conference schedule with shootout after shootout. It’s not an ideal situation for the other leagues – to be way understated – but for one year the on-field product would be a whole lot of fun.

The College Football Playoff types have already said it’s business as usual, but this time around the committee would have to work at it to come up with the true four best teams. It can’t just pick the four brand name Power Five champions, lather, rinse, and repeat – it’s probably going to have to dive into game after game along the way.

It’s not going to be for forever.

The 2020 college football season is almost certainly going to be a one-off to buy time to get to 2021. But if this works, and if the powers-that-be – if for their own self-interest, if nothing else – can really and truly make sure everyone is safe, this is about to be the most fun season ever, and …

Yeah, I know.

I’m well aware that we’re all probably going back to binging Cornhole tournaments again.

Aw crap. I looked up. It’s a Steinway.

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Will There Be A College Football Season In 2020? Where Is The Plan?

Will there be a college football season in 2020? How can it be safety played? What are the major issues?

Will there be a college football season in 2020? How can it be safety played? What are the major issues?


@PeteFiutak

College presidents, athletic directors, commissioners, and all those in charge of the very, very weird world of sports at major American universities have had almost four months to figure out how to get college football going in the age of a global pandemic.

And they’re on the verge of totally blowing it.

[jwplayer 4kGKn9MC]

I honestly thought that raw greed – combined with the economic survival of various athletic departments – would’ve been enough motivation to generate a more innovative plan than hoping the bad virus thingy would just go away.

But there’s still time. There’s not a lot, but there’s some.

Yes, there still might be a college football season like normal, and if that doesn’t happen, there’s still a shot at playing in some way. However, reality is starting rain down on ADs and conference commissioners like an anvil, and they’re borrowing an umbrella from Wile E. Coyote.

So to sum up every radio appearance I’ve been on over the last four months, and just about every other conversation I’ve had with the outside world, let’s do this …

Will there be a college football season?

Short answer, yes, but it won’t be anything like normal. There’s no way the schedule will go off without several hitches and changes along the way.

It might be a season of eight or so games, it might start a little later, and there will definitely be a twists and turns along the way. No matter what, the athletic directors will have to fight every instinct that made them major college athletic directors and be flexible on the fly.

But yes, I actually do think that at least some teams will be playing college football in the fall. I’ll get into this more at the end.

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But how? How can college football be safely played?

It’s the same thing I’ve been saying since mid-March. It can be done, but you’re not going to like the answer.

All players and coaches have to be tested, quarantined, and isolated from the rest of humankind for the entirety of the college football season.

That’s it. That’s the deal, and at this late stage of the game, it’s non-negotiable.

Start August 1, get practices up and rolling, and go on through the first week of December. It’s only four months, and it’s going to go by in a snap.

Also, remember, it’s not for forever. It’s just to get through this 2020 season and then everyone can reassess.

To buy into what has to be done, though, everyone has to get rid of the notion that the game of football can be changed to protect players from the virus.

This can’t be played without gatherings on the field, on the sidelines, and in the locker room. This can’t be played without collisions, and without sweat and spit flying all over the place. This can’t be tweaked to adapt to the normal guidelines that everyone else is supposed to adhere to.

No, the only way this flies is if all the players and coaches on the field are as clean as can be reasonably asked for from the tests currently available. That means no going out, no going to bars or parties, and no going out into the world.

It stinks. It all stinks. It’s all bad. But if you want to play college football this season, this is how it has to work. Any other way will guarantee a shutdown or a disruption of some sort, and …

Whatever. They’re not going to lock down and quarantine everyone. So now what?

There doesn’t appear to be any other practical plan in place.

Say it’s the night before Georgia vs. Alabama and three Crimson Tide players test positive. Yes, they get isolated, and yes, they’ll probably be okay, but Georgia isn’t going to want to play unless it knows that everyone on the other side tested negative and hasn’t come directly in contact with the affected players.

That’s going to be logistically tougher than it might seem.

Then, you have to trace back to Georgia State – who Alabama will have played the week before – and then back to USC from the opening weekend, and anyone those two teams came into contact with.

And then what happens to the Kent State game for Bama a week later, and the date at Ole Miss after that if everyone has to quarantine for 14 days?

Again, better to lock down everyone from the get-go then shut it all down in the middle of the season.

And I know exactly what’s coming next from an all-too-sizable portion of the public.

These are 18-to-22-year-olds in peak condition. If they get it, they’re almost certainly going to be fine, and …

Yeah, but there’s something different about college football in a that’s-someone’s-son sort of way.

Are you 1000% certain that every player who gets this won’t have any lingering, life-altering effects?

Are you 1000% certain that some NFL talent won’t see his lung capacity decrease by just enough to keep him from being at the elite level he needs to play at?

Are you 1000% certain that no player will die from COVID-19 if a season is played like normal?

Even if you believe this is all overblown and the media is pedaling fear porn, the reality is that when people get this, things shut down. You might not agree, and you might think it’s an overreaction, but that’s the deal.

Also, remember, there’s one gaping difference here between college football and the pro sports. The college football players don’t have any representation.

Pro athletes have a union, agents, and people getting paid a whole lot of money to look out for their best interests. If there’s a collectively bargained agreement, then the players have to trust that the people in charge are trying to keep them safe.

College football players don’t have that, so there’s a massive moral problem when unpaid – we can get into the whole compensation side another time – athletes are taking a health risk for the love of the game.

[lawrence-related id=515331]

How can there be college football if there aren’t students on campus as normal?

No students on campus is a positive.

If players aren’t locked down for the season in an athletic dorm, the fewer people on campus, the less chance of an outbreak.

If everyone is taking classes remotely, then so can college football players – they can just do it in a dorm on campus. In this case, this really might be the one time when college football players really will be like every other student.

There will be grad students at most places – mainly because that’s where the schools make their real money – and many colleges will still have lab classes that have to be done in person. It’s not different for college football, which …

Yeah, but wouldn’t playing college football when most of the students aren’t on campus be a really, really bad look?

I’ve never quite understood this argument.

Is it a bad look when college basketball teams on a run to the Final Four have almost a whole month of normal college life disrupted and changed? People would get past this in a hurry.

If you haven’t figured out that major college football players are different than normal students, and if you haven’t realized how insane the entire system is, then please don’t get all weird now about the hypocrisies across the board when it comes to major college athletics.

To be cynical, once the ball is kicked off, no one will really care about the optics. To be even more ugly – because presidents at most schools will have to justify not cutting tuition costs for online schooling – football might be forced to be played in an attempt to keep up morale.

What about just waiting until the spring?

Why is the spring going to be any better?

Forgetting that you lose all the NFL talents who won’t be able to leave the college scene fast enough, what’s going to change?

It’s still a long shot that a vaccine will be ready. More directly, if the powers-that-be haven’t figured out how to do this over the last four months, what light bulb is going to turn on in February?

With that said – and PLEASE keep your dopey political opinions in your pocket – the one game-changer could be the election. There might be a very, very different set of rules, guidelines and national protocols to follow in 2021 depending on who wins.

While we’re on this, it’ll be fascinating to see how college football is about get politicized.

Don’t underestimate what a gigantic PR win it would be for the current administration and elected officials in football-mad states if there’s football being played in late October and early November, and don’t dismiss what a colossal political disaster it will be if there isn’t.

So why haven’t athletic directors been sharper about coming up with a plan?

1) There’s no Roger Goodell-type at the top to centralize everything, because 2) the NCAA has zero interest in getting into the liability game and is punting to the conferences, which means 3) the conferences have to deal with various schools and various states with various governors with various sets of rules.

You want to try figuring out college football at the immediate moment in Texas, or Arizona, or in several of the SEC states?

Ten FBS conferences, ten conference commissioners – that doesn’t include Notre Dame – and they’re all looking to not make a mistake.

And then there’s harsh reality of the biggest killer for the schools …

No fans in the stands.

There’s a thought that if there’s not enough money being made off of playing football, then there’s no real point in moving heaven and earth to get a season going.

The NFL makes most of its money off of TV revenue, marketing and licensing. Most college athletic departments sink or swim depending on the football attendance.

That’s why coaches are only truly on a hot seat if there’s a dip in the ticket sales – or in donations. A coach can keep losing, but as long as the butts are in the seats, he’s got a shot at sticking around.

Of course there’s TV revenue for the colleges if football is played, but it’s not nearly as big a deal as it is for the NFL.

Okay, so make the call. What’s really going to happen?

To end on a positive note, I really do think there will be college football, and I really do want to believe it can be done responsibly.

Once it’s really on, and everyone realizes what’s at stake, they’ll lock things down on their own.

However, first get ready for the real gut-punch – few, if any, colleges will have undergraduate students back like normal.

What’s the worst possible idea on the planet right now? Take a smallish-to-midsized American town with limited hospital resources and bring in tens of thousands of people from all over the world to jam into confined spaces.

What do college kids do when they get away from home with a chance at freedom? One house party later, and uh oh.

Relating all of that to college football, conference commissioners can say there won’t be fall sports if the students aren’t back on campus, but not all schools are going have the same issues.

Indiana recently tested all the athletes on campus and didn’t get one positive result. Michigan retested everyone and had just the two positives from a few weeks before.

A college football season might have to be dealt with on a school-by-school, moment-by-moment basis, even within conferences.

Once we get to the 11th hour on the decision on whether it’s go or no-go on a launch – total guess here – watch out for one conference to go rogue and decide to keep things in-house with a league-only schedule – each conference will create its own set of protocols, rules and guidelines – and then everyone else will quickly follow, or not.

Bu it’ll happen. There’s going to be college football in some way.

It’s college. Everyone is cramming at the last moment for the exam.

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Is There Going To Be A College Football Season? HOW?

For all the talk about the college football season possibly coming together in 2020 … how? Is there even a real plan to get this going?

For all the talk about the college football season possibly coming together in 2020 … how? Is there even a real plan to get this going? Pete Fiutak goes on a rant in the CFN Podcast.


Is There Going To Be A College Football Season?… HOW?

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Okay, college football people, conference commissioners, athletic directors, networks and business types who are all semi-publicly and privately saying there’s going to be a 2020 college football season …


CFN Podcast: Will There Be A Season? HOW?
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That’s absolutely fantastic. All of the words being written and all the podcasts being done with various highly-placed sources sound hopeful, but one little question, though …

HOW?

Seriously, tell us all the exact plan of attack, because so far no one seems to have one.

A few days ago my watch got pinged for a Breaking News type of alert from some major web site highlighting a long-form, in-depth piece with inside interviews with high-end big-wigs giving all of these fantastic talking points.

There wasn’t one word about testing.

You can play the games, but if one player who was on the field tests positive, that’s it. Game over.

It’s all shut down, we’re all worried about the other players, and we’re all freaking the freak out about that 64-year-old offensive line coach who social distanced himself from vegetables for the last 40 years.

But before my ranting whine-fest continues, three ground rules.

1. No politics here. I don’t care about whatever side of the bread you actively choose to butter. When it comes to whether or not there’s going to be a college football season, the political world doesn’t matter …

Sort of.

From a perception and normalcy standpoint, it’ll be a really, really big deal to the campaigns on both sides if there is or isn’t football in September and October leading up to the November election.

Also, the politics of specific regions might play a massive role. It’ll be tough to have a Pac-12 season with California likely to put the kibosh on any sporting event unless it’s deemed 100% safe.

Schools in the Big 12 and SEC states might have an easier time depending on the political leanings of the respective governing bodies.

2. Professionally and personally, no one – I repeat, NO ONE – wants and needs college football more than I do. If I’m sounding grouchy here, it’s because I’m mad that the in-charge types are blowing off what’s possible in an attempt to be perfect.

3. I actually am positive about all of this. I’ve said from the start that I honestly believe it’s possible to have a college football season played safely in some way. We all might like the game aspect of college football, but this is financial life or death for many athletic departments – necessity might just make this happen.

[jwplayer Or3IPyr6]

This can be done, but that means we have to deal with reality. It starts with one basic premise that athletic directors and conference commissioners have to get drilled into their respective heads immediately.

Nothing has changed since sports were shut down in mid-March, and nothing in the next year or so will be all that different, either.

We’re not going to have a vaccine before the end of 2020. This is it. The virus hasn’t left over the last six weeks, and we’re all going to have to live with it – or not – in some way for a long, long while.

You might believe things should open back up again immediately – everyone has to die of something – but from a liability and practical standpoint, college athletics can’t just go back to normal with a Hope For The Best plan.

You might believe that everyone should stay locked down and not come within 100 feet of another person, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to figure out how to safely and effectively do certain things.

However, just putting some timeline on when college football will be back before there’s a cure or vaccine is ridiculous.

You can say that there’s a plan to do a college football season of some sort by the end of 2020, or you can say that you’re thinking of creating a season that starts in February of 2021, or you could say you want a gazillion bajillion dollars delivered to your front door by Kim Kardashian dressed in whipped cream.

It’s all fantasyland hoo-ha.

College football teams can’t even have a team meeting right now, much less hold a practice, much less have a game.

Commissioners and ADs, you have to start living in the land of the real and possible. That means you have to come to grips with something that the rest of us can’t.

This ALL really, really, really sucks.

Don’t plan on regular students going back to college campuses in 2020.

It might be possible to figure out how to conduct socially-distant classes and make other aspects of college life safe, but one house party later … uh-oh. Thanks for playing.

But you don’t need college kids on campus, anyway. Even if the students return like normal, to have a football season, the players can’t mingle with the rest of the population and will need to take their classes remotely.

For this to work, the same ideas from several weeks ago still apply. Here’s what everyone has to have an answer for.

Testing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, testing for this thing in this country has been the all-time textbook definition of an epic fail, but there are no sports – college or pro – unless everyone who’s on that field is tested and determined to be virus-free. And then …

– Quarantine and isolate in a jock dorm. Make one athletic dorm available for just the football team – we’ll deal with the other sports and the logistics of Title IX another time – but the players and coaches all have to live in one dorm on campus, and that’s it. They can go there, to the practice facility, and to the games. But …

A rule needs to be in place that a player can opt-out and not lose his scholarship. If a guy doesn’t want to do this for whatever reason, it’s fine. He can’t be threatened if for whatever reason he doesn’t want to be locked down for three months or more.

– Travel. Right now, look in the sky. Keep looking. Keep looking. You see all those planes whizzing by? No? This one is easy – airlines have nothing to do. They can sanitize their unused planes and make them safe for team travel.

Every airline would bend over backwards right now for the business.

- Hotels and away games. I have a friend high-up in the business for one of the major chains. They’re right now in the process of coming up with new and efficient ways to assure that every room is totally sanitized and virus-free once everything opens back up. Hosting a football team full of players, coaches and trainers who have tested negative in an empty hotel shouldn’t be a problem.

Every hotel would bend over backwards right now for the business.

And then there’s the part that everyone has to let go of right now, and not a second longer.

There’s no way there can be fans in stands for sporting events.

Temperature check? Seriously, everyone, learn what the word asymptomatic means.

Six feet of distance between people wearing masks? Yeah, three words – Blue Angels, Thunderbirds.

As soon as those things started flying around major cities honoring the health care workers, what did people do? They crowded around each other to look up and see the fly-by.

I live across the street from a golf course and a hospital. As I’m writing this, three guys on the 5th hole green at the country club are all but hugging each other they’re so close, all while there’s a giant Heroes Work Here sign up across the fence.

Schools and athletic departments can’t handle a swarm of tens of thousands of people coming to their stadiums no matter how much everyone might try to be safe.

Worst of all, almost all college-town hospitals aren’t even remotely equipped to handle a surge of sick patients. Again, this goes back to why colleges probably won’t open back up for the regular student population this fall, and why the idea of 50,000+ local people in one spot might be a virus spreading problem on steroids.

Again, it ALL really, really, really sucks.

Schools and athletic departments, I know everyone needs the ticket revenue, but take the TV money, get what you can get, and literally buy some time to figure out 2021.

Oh yeah, but players and coaches, you need to be ready.

It’s been suggested it would take two months to get a college football team going for a season. Yeah, coaches … be prepared that if there appears to be a window that might work, you might have a few weeks.

Everyone else, be prepared for there to be a season that looks absolutely nothing like anything we’ve ever seen before, and also be prepared for the possibility that it just might not happen.

However, we’ll have college football again. Even if it’s not in 2020, the sport will still survive, and we’ll love it all more than ever.

This country survived World War II, a civil war, a Spanish flu, a polio nightmare, the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, and the Up With People halftime shows. We can make this happen.

Now it’s up to you, college commissioners and athletic directors. Don’t hope for a season, figure it out.

For any ideas on what you’d like to hear on future podcasts, hit me up @PeteFiutak.

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CFN Podcast: Will There Be A 2020 College Football Season? How Can This Happen?

Will there be a 2020 college football season? In this global pandemic, is it even possible, and what are the main barriers?

Will there be a 2020 college football season? In this global pandemic, is it even possible, and what are the barriers to putting some sort of a product on the field?


CFN Podcast: Will There Be A 2020 College Football Season?

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

With the hopefully obvious caveat that there are FAR more important issues and concerns to figure out than whether or not a sport can be played …

Will there be a 2020 college football season?

It’s the only question in college athletics right now, because the life of athletic departments depends on whether or not there are football games and if there are fans in the stands.

How can this possibly happen? What are the big barriers unique to college football compared to other sports?

Before diving into the fun and silly stuff around a college football season in future podcasts, check out the latest CFN Podcast as I dive into the basic questions and issues about the one big thing that matters in the college football world.

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For any ideas on what you’d like to hear on future podcasts, hit me up @PeteFiutak.

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Daily Cavalcade: Can There Be A 2020 College Football Season? You Have 4 Months, Athletic Directors

Athletic directors have little time to waste if there’s going to be 2020 college football season. Everything is on the table.

[jwplayer Qpt9xkcT]


Athletic directors have little time to waste if there’s going to be 2020 college football season. Everything has to be on the table to make this happen.


Daily Cavalcade: Can There Be A 2020 College Football Season?

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

1. I’m built for this quarantine and staying at home thing. I could do six months standing on my head.

2. If you’re angry at any aspect of this, remember, no one wants or needs a full 2020 college football season more than I do.

Really, there will be sports again. For now … just stay safe, and hope for ESPN to put out The Last Dance 30 or 30 on the Bulls as soon as humanly possible.

You have four months, college athletic directors.

Obviously, everything around the coronavirus nightmare is more important than whether or not a dumb college football game is played in late August, and of course the horrors and issues that so many are experiencing and dealing with are truly all that matter.

Our temporary reality is just getting started, but as we speak, college athletic directors are trying to do their jobs for their respective schools.

They’re trying to figure out whether or not there can, will, and should be a college football season in 2020, and they have just four months to get there.

It’s late March, and to have any sort of a working college football season to keep with the schedule as it’s currently created – supposedly kicking off on Saturday, August 29th – there has to be at least a full month for the machine to get going.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, “chill … that’s four FREAKING months away,” but considering the Tokyo Olympics have about as much chance of starting on July 24th as Jamal Murray has of reversing time and not hitting POST on his Instagram account, the sports world is already knee-deep into planning ahead for late-July and early August.

By August 1st – at the latest – college football training camps, practices, and facilities have to be up and going, especially considering there’s not going to be spring ball. However, it’s delusional for athletic directors to not at least prepare their budgets and plans just in case things don’t go off like normal this fall.

[lawrence-related id=509830]

So for now, let’s just ignore the potential that it all gets shut down for the 2020 season.

What do all the athletic directors have to be figuring out, and what possibilities are out there to give us college football again?

First things first, there is no football of any sort this year without …

1. Testing, testing, testing.

Let’s all hope and pray that the cure is coming tomorrow – and hopefully it’s some easy and awesome combination of crispy bacon and watching Blue Chips four times in a row – but even the most optimistic experts are saying it’ll be at least 12-to-18 months before one might be available, much less for mass distribution.

It’s out of the hands of the athletic directors, but until there’s a cure, by mid-July there has to be a way for every player and coach to be tested – and with quick results – to even think about starting up practices, much less getting the season going on time.

If just one player in a collision sport like this is infected, the results could be disastrous.

That’s just for the guys on the field. Athletic directors, you’re not going to like this – none of us will – but …

2. Plan on the likelihood of a season with no fans in the stands. 



If we’re not all completely and totally out of the woods by this summer, liability-wise, how can schools allow fans into the stadiums without testing every one of them before they enter?

Again, we’re almost certainly not going to have a vaccine for everyone by late August – if there is one – so even if the curve is flattened, thousands of people cramming together in stadiums all across the nation six months from now might still be a no-go.

That’s how a small-bump curve turns into Kilimanjaro in a hiccup.

And even if college football is going again and fans are allowed to attend, 1) attendance was already an issue before this, 2) have fun trying to get thousands of people to want to be around thousands of other people, and 3) good luck finding enough fans with any disposable income left.

Throw in the need for all the resources to gear up a major college football game – especially if our medical system is battling in any way after what’s predicted to come over the next few months – and the logistics of having fans show up are going to be tough.

Considering how financially disastrous it might be for most athletic departments to have no fans in the stands …

3. In case of emergency, maybe break or push off the deals for the non-conference games.

Let’s start exploring the nuclear options.

If needed, buy yourself some time, athletic directors.

Some schools cancelled non-conference games over the years because of hurricane and weather issues – same thing here.

The whole point of the cupcake games against the FCSers – and for most Power Five vs. Group of Five matchups – is to make the home team a lot of money off of the attendance in an easy win. If those fans aren’t there, the dynamic changes.

The TV revenue is still a part of the puzzle, but if schools are trying to figure out some way to have a 2020 season, limiting it to conference play gives everyone more room – like maybe starting the season in October with an eight-or-nine game slate.

And if it’s not okay in August, maybe it’ll be all clear for fans to show up again deeper into the fall.

Or, if the season really has to be pushed back …

4. If absolutely needed, blow off the bowl season outside of the New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff.

At absolute best, athletic departments break even going to bowls, and they usually lose money.

Again, it might be all about buying time and exploring every option.

If it’s not possible to have a season start up as normal in late August, what about starting several weeks later and extending the season through mid-to-late December?

It’s not ideal, and no one wants that – especially ESPN – but depending on what happens over the next few months, some season would be better than no season.

And if everything else fails and things get brutally ugly for the bottom line …

5. Have a plan in place for postponing most non-revenue sports this fall and for Spring 2021.

It would be devastating if it comes to this, and it would be an impossible sell for most athletic directors, but they have to be ready for everything.

Use the tired hope-for-the-best-prepare-for-the-worst cliché that’s on the motivational poster next to “Hang In There,” with the picture of a cat in a tree.

Most non-revenue sports cost pennies compared to the monster revenue-generators, and the Title IX aspect will come into play, but athletic departments will be crushed if they’re crossing their fingers and banking on a revenue stream that doesn’t come from packed football stadiums.

And now, to take this thing totally off the rails …

6. Ice Cube?

I’ve had an idea for the NBA from the moment the season hit the pause button.

Why can’t a multi-billion dollar company like the NBA – with its multi-billionaire owners – figure out how to test and then quarantine the 20 or so necessary parts of a team, keep them away from other humans for a few months – in the name of the league and the morale of a nation – and then televise their games in an empty and sanitized-as-possible gym?

Of course, the players wouldn’t go for it, the isolation aspect wouldn’t fly, and they’d all have to be tested every other day. There are still way too many logistical issues to work through to make it all happen on a major scale.

However, Ice Cube is trying to do all of it for his BIG3 League.

Okay, college athletic directors. Is there any way to apply any of this for college football?

The overall model has no shot – there are WAY too many players, coaches, and trainers who’d have to be quarantined – but if you really want a college football season, there are parts that might work.

It’s the dream of every coach to have their players on lockdown for a few months, but if there are quick and easy tests, that might not be as much of an issue.

The travel and hotel aspect would also be a concern, along with remembering that these guys are all college students, too. Taking all the classes on-line – unless you have to – isn’t the college experience, but it’s possible.

Athletic directors, put everything on the table.

Don’t get caught flat-footed like the NCAA did with its big basketball tournament, and don’t be like the NBA and pull players off the floor at the last minute.

As long as it’s safe, and as long as we’re in a good enough position overall that it’s okay, we all want a college football season. Now it’s up to you to come up with Plans A, B, C and Q, and contingency plan after contingency plan, to try making it happen.

You have four months.

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Cavalcade of Whimsy: Tua Tagovailoa, LSU’s Glitch, Coaching Contract Extensions

The fallout from the Tua Tagovailoa injury, LSU’s possible issue, and more contract extensions, in the latest Cavalcade of Whimsy.

[jwplayer PkCtjTd4-boEY74VG]


The fallout from the Tua Tagovailoa injury, LSU’s possible issue, and more contract extensions, in the latest Cavalcade of Whimsy.


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Check out all the past Cavalcades
Get College Football Tickets

Sorry if this column sucks, it’s not my fault …

This column doesn’t worry about players getting hurt, and then in the commercial break, it’s in an ad pitching a supplemental insurance product … because you need to worry about what happens if you get hurt.

“On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”

The Tua Tagovailoa injury made me so mad. 

Thank goodness it sounds like he’ll recover quickly and all should be fine, but it made me mad that this wonderful kid had to suffer the pain of that injury. 

It made me mad that it took away his dream and goal of quarterbacking Alabama to a national championship this season. 

It made me mad because something like this is going to happen again, and the same media types who went all “thoughts and prayers” are going to stick to the same old tired football clichés and beliefs without putting any effort into thinking differently.

It made me mad because I’m a fan who loves to watch one of the greatest pure passers college football has ever seen. 

It made me mad at how many supposedly smart people just can’t grasp that some football games matter, and sometimes there’s no need whatsoever to take even the slightest of unnecessary chances.

And it’s making me really, really mad that so many refuse to consider the idea that college football coaches have to be better at risk management.

I’m not blaming Nick Saban. 

I’m blaming all of us for not being a whole lot smarter.

We live in an era of net gen stats being thrown at us about everything.

There are specialized trainers for nutrition, best practices for working out, and assistant coaches who can break down the most minute details of the game.

There are charts for when to go for it on fourth down, when to go for two, when to make the players go to sleep, and everything else to gain even the slightest of competitive advantages.

Why can’t there be some wonky smart person who creates an insurance actuary table-like thing – you know, this load management craze the NBA kids are all into – to properly analyze the risk factors of when to play and not play a can’t-lose part of a team’s puzzle?

No-no-no, please don’t leave … I know, I’ve lost you with the word insurance – and I’m with you.

It’s a game. The players want to play it, it’s all fun, and it’s all about the joy of the sport … sort of. That all feeds into the NCAA’s brain-washing narrative of why players shouldn’t get paid, but that’s for another day.

For now, let’s just keep it simple. 

If Tagovailoa is on the sidelines when Alabama is up 35-7 and has the game well in hand, he doesn’t dislocate his hip. So how do we prevent something like this from happening again, or more realistically, how do we minimize the risk while still keeping the game fun and amazing?

Let’s go. First of all …

Nick Saban is the head man in charge. The idea of this being on Tagovailoa in any way, or that anyone can lobby Saban to do something he doesn’t want to do, or that any aspect of the Alabama football program isn’t 100% decided by the head coach, is laughable. Saban is the absolute and total ruler of the Alabama football world. He’s also a brilliant guy, which means …

Really? You “don’t prepare for injuries?” Well … why not? You prepare for everything else. You prepare for every crazy possibility down to the smallest detail, and yet you don’t factor in the risk/reward of playing Tua Tago-freaking-vailoa an extra few snaps, even though the outcome of the game was already decided?

Again, I’m not blaming Saban. Almost all coaches think like this, and the ones who don’t – see Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy sitting his top players all preseason, even though Mitchell Trubisky obviously needed the work – don’t seem to have it totally right, either. 

And yeah, in a purely competitive football way, there was a case for Tagovailoa still being out there.

Alabama needs to keep winning, and it needs to be amazing doing it. The only way it makes the College Football Playoff is by obliterating everyone left on the schedule after that LSU loss. So yes, there is something to be said for leaving 13 on the field for one more drive, because 42-7 at the half on the road in the SEC is exactly the statement that gets the playoff committee all hot.

So why didn’t Saban just say that? “We needed and wanted more points. We’re in the playoff chase, and we have to keep on playing and making a statement.” He says that, and everyone gets it. Even better, in a PR sort of way, then the blame and focus gets shifted to the College Football Playoff system.

However …

Really? I know he’s the greatest head coach of all-time, but he actually needed the NFL franchise-caliber quarterback of one of the most devastating quick-strike attacks in the history of college football to get more practice running a two-minute offense?

Sorry. I lost focus. Back to the issue of how to keep this situation from happening again, and that starts with one of the main talking points we have to debunk.

This wasn’t a fluke. Just because it happened in the final moments of the first half doesn’t take away that it was still a risk leaving Tagovailoa out there, because it’s a risk any time a player is playing. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s the first play, the last play, or anywhere in any situation in between. There’s a reason for the cliché that your career could be over on any given play, because …

IT’S … (bleep)ING … FOOTBALL. It’s part of the reason why we all love this wonderful sport. These amazing athletes are out there doing unbelievable things all while having to bury in the back of their minds the horrible possibility that something life-altering could happen at any moment. Of course injuries can happen in any sport at any time – but not like this one. 

It isn’t a given that a guy will get carted off the field when you go to a baseball game. There isn’t the looming likelihood of a player breaking a bone in the average NBA game, and there’s no guaranteed certainty of at least one concussion by anyone playing golf or tennis. 

And there certainly isn’t the cloud of worry in most sports that a player could be paralyzed if a play goes an inch the wrong way – which is why a Minnesota’s PJ Fleck took a key unsportsmanlike penalty for running onto the field, terrified when WR Tyler Johnson was “motionless” after getting walloped by a huge hit in the loss to Iowa.

And because of that …

We have to stop thinking about football injuries as “bad luck.” Instead, we have to rebrand them as a lost gamble. If you play football, you’re almost certainly going to suffer an injury of some sort at some point, so – duh – the less you play, the fewer the chances of getting hurt.

So how do you get the most out of your key players as possible while taking the least amount of risk? Again, this is where football needs special analysts to figure this out – you’re up 35-7 at the end of the half against Team X, and your probability of losing this game is 0.3% without QB1 in.

You find these analysts, head coaches, so they can worry about injuries, and then you don’t have to.

But I can hear your angry tweet being typed as we speak …

IT’S A GAME. Of course players want to play. Of course we don’t want to watch while always thinking about whether or not a player is going to get hurt. So after all of that …

Coach Saban, I do get it. You really can’t coach and worry about injuries – at least in the macro sense. Football players getting hurt is part of doing business, and you have to keep coaching through it all no matter what.

Of course you can’t coach scared.

It’s why depth matters. It’s why the “Next Man Up” idea is so important, and it’s why every backup has to always be prepared like he’s about to go in.

But …

That wasn’t some player.

That was Tua Tagovailoa.

“Well, if this is it old boy, I hope you don’t mind if I go out speaking the King’s.”

If you’re off to the NFL after all of this – as you should be …

Thanks, Tua. That was a blast.

NEXT: The No. 1 team’s glitch …