Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated has blamed President Donald Trump’s handling of COVID-19 for the 2020 college football season at risk. In a column published Thursday, Forde laid out how Trump has approached everything related to the pandemic since it began. The result is no packed stadiums at best and no season at all at worst. That’s not good for a President who has major support in areas where college football reigns supreme.
This column came out shortly after the NCAA released its latest report on resocialization of collegiate sport. A graphic in that report highlighted how far off the U.S. is from the downward trajectory that was projected when the NCAA began conversations about restarting sports at the end of April. That same graphic showed how much Europe, Canada and Japan have flattened the curve by comparison.
College athletics across the board are being forced to decide whether to let their student-athletes assume the risk if they want or to save those student-athletes from themselves. Fall sports, one of which happens to be responsible for the revenue that trickles down everywhere else, could not have been put in a more precarious situation. Many fingers, including that of Forde, are being pointed at Trump, while others blame Americans who have refused to sacrifice enough or anything in the name of keeping all of their personal freedoms. Whoever is responsible, what we’re seeing now is the result of four months of gross mismanagement all over the country.