In an attempt to explain why I’m not currently sold on the models being used to project the safe return of college football, I wrote an article talking about the sport being largely unsafe under the current plans. That article didn’t even focus on a particular aspect of play.
Right now, several states around the nation are turning into coronavirus hotspots. Whether it’s the lack of mask mandates or states only opting to use temporary social distancing measures and temporary mask mandates, the idea that a forward-thinking state’s football team could be forced into play against a backward-thinking state’s prized bellcow program doesn’t sit right with me.
How can you keep at least two groups of 110 or more people completely safe when one team may not legally have to care about masks or social distancing?
This is the larger, overarching problem currently facing the College Football Playoff and its committee of leaders in 2020. Adding to these problems is the fact that different conferences are either using conference-only scheduling or they’re using conference-plus-one (one nonconference game) to round out their school schedules.
Let’s play with a hypothetical using this scenario.
Let’s say Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State go undefeated, but then you have Georgia, which lost to Alabama by 10, and Pac-12 champion Oregon, which lost to a decent USC team by a field goal. Which team is in the playoff? With different scheduling structures among the Power Five conferences, how can you even determine this fairly? At a certain point, when you’re only playing conference games, can it be anything but conference bias?
What becomes the fair and just thing to do? No postseason? Maybe you do a one-year-only version with six teams: the champs from all Power Five schools and let the committee determine the Group of Five champion? Just play a larger playoff to balance out the smaller season?
That’s just the sorting and selection process. None of this, and I mean absolutely nothing in here, puts forth any plan on how to act if Alabama faced USC in a playoff game in New Orleans (the Sugar Bowl semifinal) when the two states have two different politicians (and political cultures) running things, and they have to travel to a third state (Louisiana)? Does USC walk around with N95s and face shields? Do Alabama players have to wear a mask? Or do the different bowls get to set the rules on who has to wear specific pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?
This is just off the top of my head. Many more details exist which haven’t been mentioned.
I’m not even trying to sit down, take my Master’s degree in Public Policy, and hack out a plan that might actually work for these guys. It’s not my job. But it WILL be somebody’s job and they’re going to have a HELL of a feat to pull off. It won’t be easy, but I will be pulling for them. I will be following their plan and critiquing or praising parts of it as we go.
Look, I’m smart enough to know that we’re all learning on the fly… but as long as we’re actively trying to learn to keep people safe, that’s the main thing.
Has college football thought all of this through? There isn’t much convincing evidence it has. Hopefully it soon will.