20 for 2020: 20 key college football offseason topics, No. 2: 5 nutty, out there predictions that just might turn out to be right.
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20 for 2020 Offseason Topics
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. 5 Teams That Might Disappoint
6. 5 Teams That Might Surprise
5. Group of Five Conference Ranking
4. Power 5 Conference Ranking
3. Top Non-Obvious Heisman Candidates
1. NEXT: The College Football Playoff call
We’ll keep on doing what we do whether or not there’s a season, but all thoughts go out to those suffering and struggling, and to all the health care workers battling above and beyond the call. Please … stay safe.
Welcome once again to the annual three-true-outcome piece.
With these offseason big-swing cuts, I either walk, strike out – usually in painfully embarrassing fashion – or hit a towering home run.
Last year, for example, I struck out big-time with the call that Texas A&M would beat Clemson on the way to being a big thing, and whiffed harder on the idea that Michigan would win the Big Ten championship.
I’ll take the K on the call that Urban Meyer would be the next USC head coach, but it was on a borderline pitch off the edge of the plate. I lined out by saying Oklahoma would get to the CFP and end up playing for the national title, but I cleared the fence by calling that either Clemson or Alabama would miss out on the College Football Playoff.
So you get the idea.
Oh, I’ll miss massively on a few of these, but …
Get ready for 1977 World Series Game 6 Reggie Jackson.
5. There will be college football in 2020, but …
It will depend on how we all get through what’s potentially coming.
If the optics of playing a fun game are too awful five months from now, then it’s an absolute and hard no on a season. However, if the country wants and needs any sort of a morale boost/diversion, and the mood is there for football …
Football will figure something out.
It might not be a full season, but – obviously this is I’m-not-a-doctor-or-specialist speculation – if it’s possible 4-to-6 months from now, the NCAA will 1) procure enough easy tests with quick results to ensure that no infected player or coach goes on the field, and 2) will get creative enough with the timing and scheduling to have college football in some form.
CFN in 60: 5 Nutty College Football Predictions Video
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Knock out two other key elements from the equation.
First, until there’s a vaccine, just forget about the idea of any fans being in the stands until 2021, and even that’s a maybe.
There are too many parts that athletic directors and the NCAA can’t control, and squishing together tens of thousands of people together in a stadium is an easy – but painful – part of the logistics that can be eliminated.
Also, don’t assume for a second that player preparedness has anything to do with this. Whether or not the guys are in shape is on them, the coaches, and the programs.
The NCAA might relax the time restrictions and practice limit rules, but if there’s a way to get players on the field playing college football in front of TV cameras, it’s going to happen.
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Remember, the NBA, NHL, NCAA, and – even with a little more time – MLB were caught totally flat-footed. The NFL and college football powers-that-be have at least four months to come up with a way to do what they do.
It might take draconian measures – like sequestering and quarantining the players once they have negative tests – and/or it might take daily checkups, but if there’s any possible way to have football before the end of the year, it’ll happen.
Now, assuming that is all true in some way …