Remember a few months ago, when the Pac-12 was exploring an 11-game all-league schedule — with zero nonconference games — and we wrote about the matter in multiple pieces here at Trojans Wire?
Those topics and related storylines have taken a back seat to the more urgent news in recent weeks regarding COVID-19 outbreaks at Clemson, Texas, Alabama, and elsewhere.
Now, however, with the clock ticking on college football — and the sport needing to arrive at decisions about when (or if) the 2020 season will start — conference commissioners and school presidents need to choose the best plan for September through November.
Yes, we always have to add qualifiers and caveats to any COVID-19 college football article. In this case, we have to add the obvious (but necessary) point that if certain things happen in August or September, there won’t be an October or November with college football. It might be boring or overly repetitive to keep mentioning the “if something happens, this all ends” mantra, but that always has to be kept in mind in an unprecedented situation.
Let’s move on.
Though everything could immediately end in October or November if one player or coach gets severely sick, let’s proceed with a reality in which not one person endures that fate, which presumably allows for the possibility of continuing to play football.
If college football does move forward, how should it be done?
Let’s be realistic, especially from a USC perspective: At this point in time, with Texas being a hot spot for COVID-19 and the Deep South racking up a lot of positive cases, the idea of playing Alabama in Arlington on September 5 seems less safe and therefore less advisable than it did several weeks earlier.
Am I saying — with total finality — that the game must be abandoned? No. Things are changing quickly with COVID-19, and keep in mind that if teams are allowed to practice in late July and throughout August, that is still a six-week buffer before a single game has to be played.
The decisions which absolutely must be made in the coming 10 to 14 days concern the starting of practice and the aforementioned six-week period before any possible start of the season. That decision will lead to subsequent decisions, including whether USC-Alabama is played — and where it is played, and when it is played.
Obviously, making decisions on Week 1 games isn’t the most immediate concern for schools — whether to start summer training camp is No. 1 — but Week 1 choices will soon follow.
The idea that every currently scheduled game involving a Power Five team will go off entirely as planned — the location, the specific opponents, on the original date — seems highly dubious right now. Of those various games, the matchups at neutral sites, especially with two teams both traveling from other states into a third state (such as USC-Alabama), invite the most complications and therefore remain in the most jeopardy.
Remember those alternate scheduling plans? College football’s leaders might soon have to use them. We’ll get more into plans and scenarios as this week continues.