To say that life has been altered because of the Covid-19 health crisis would be the understatement of the century. Athletic events, group gatherings, in-person schooling, and places of business have come to a grinding halt in most cases.
For many, seeing live sports again would be a sign of improvement and a path towards life returning to normal. Many have wondered whether the college football season will also be impacted by what’s going on in the world today, and for the first time, we have someone with some decision making ability speaking out on what he believes will happen with the Buckeye’s 2020 season.
OSU president Michael Drake, while appearing on WOSU radio in Columbus, said the football season will be impacted at least in some ways according to a piece appearing in the Columbus Dispatch (subscription required).
“We’re not assuming, necessarily, that the season is going to start and be like last season was,” Drake said. “That’s not at all a given. We’re not also taking that there won’t be a season. Something between those two wide error bars is where we’re looking for planning.”
On one hand, it looks like Drake believes there will be some semblance of a football season, but that things will look much, much different than what we saw last year, or many years prior.
In an interview on @WOSU this morning, Ohio State President Michael Drake said the upcoming football season will be impacted in some fashion due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Whatever it is next year, it won’t be the same as it was last year.” https://t.co/mrtT5Me6qC
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) April 9, 2020
When asked what a return to the field would look like, Drake urged caution and patience.
“There will be a couple things we have to learn before we know much,” said Drake. “One, it’ll have to be safe for people to come together to have stadiums full of people. We don’t know when that will be. If the football season was supposed to start in July, we’d say you can’t do that. We’re not going to be a place in July that that would be something we could offer safely. After that, August, September, is maybe different.”
Ohio State is set to break the seal on the 2020 season at home against Bowling Green on September 5. There’s still a lot to be determined, and many options still on the table like holding contests without fans. But it is looking more and more like college football will look a lot different this fall. It might have to be.
“The excitement of the enterprise doesn’t depend entirely on a stadium full of people,” Drake said. “That’s one aspect of it.”