The thought of college football has become more bleak with every passing moment as of late. No one wants actually consider the possibility of it not happening. Those of us in the state of Texas especially love our football. Often times we consume it every week from Thursday night until Monday night. However, the game we love is in serious jeopardy.
Following the MAC being the first to cancel their season, two athletic directors from Power Five conferences spoke with CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. The two anonymous ADs gave a less than thrilling answer to the question we all are asking. Will there be college football in the fall of 2020?
“It’s not fair what we’re doing to our coaches and student-athletes,” one long-time Power Five AD said. “The sooner we can come to a finality, the better.”
“I think it’s inevitable [the season will not be played in the fall],” said another veteran Power Five AD. – according to CBS Sports report
According to multiple reports, the Big Ten Conference met to discuss multiple options for their upcoming season. The idea of pushing the season to the spring of 2021 once again became an option.
Big Ten presidents met on Saturday, though a league source told CBS Sports not to expect an immediate announcement to cancel its season — the feeling being that the league wouldn’t alter its practice schedule and announce a cancellation on the same day.
The Big Ten on Saturday announced it was “indefinitely” delaying a move to Phase 3 of practice that would have allowed players to use pads. The Detroit Free Press reported that Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is believed to prefer attempting to play a season in spring 2021.
"It's inevitable that the 2020 season will be canceled or postponed."@dennisdoddcbs is reporting two Power Five athletic directors have told him that the 2020 fall season won't be played. pic.twitter.com/u9H1OVoAPt
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) August 9, 2020
Longhorns Wire explored the idea of a spring season recently, and it isn’t so farfetched of an idea. The cancellation of the MAC conference seems to have sent plans in motion for other conferences to question pushing for football to kick off in time.
#Sooners briefly pausing practice due to altered season schedule.
➡️ https://t.co/BLqPmranDX pic.twitter.com/np3ImoizWv
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) August 9, 2020
The Longhorns bitter rivals to the north have already put their practice schedule to a halt. It wasn’t necessarily alarming since they were originally ramping up for kickoff on August 29th. The alarming part is that Oklahoma is allowing players to return home for a few days. That part raised an eyebrow.
Schools are putting in place guidelines and safety measures to ensure the health and well being of their players. Sending them home gives you the idea that maybe college football isn’t in the plans for the fall at this point. Could be pure speculation but doesn’t appear to be a positive sign. We will continue to monitor the situation as we all await answers.
The NCAA Division I Council is set to meet on Wednesday and that might be when we get some sort of closure. Like the anonymous athletic director stated, we need to come to some finality.