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Options For A Spring College Football Season
Four Options For A Spring Season
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
Working through a spring football season
-Vegas Bubble
-Rivalries only
-Shortened season
-Monthly games
College football is officially being postponed from the Mountain West and other conferences as well. The attention now turns to how a spring football season can happen.
What is most surprising is that there were no real plans formulated at all about a potential spring season. COVID-19 has been in the United States since late January and it took a foothold in sports on March 11 when Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive and shut everything down.
That was five months ago and college football went on its way not coming up with alternate plans. Yes, there was testing improvements, the splash guard helmet
First off there are a lot of reasons why not to play college football in the spring and ESPN’s Rece Davis brings up a good point in player safety. After all of the strides that have been made to limit full-on tackling during practices to limit or reduce concussions and CTE plus basically no more two-a-day practices, going to spring can wipe that away.
Why Rece Davis considers a spring football season 'completely irresponsible' https://t.co/jMIxn62O6j
— Jeremy Mauss (@JeremyMauss) August 14, 2020
Another reason that spring football may not be all that great is that those who have a shot in the NFL will take it and not risk anything. This goes beyond the top players like Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence but anyone who is even a mid-round pick should probably just pack it in and prepare for their NFL future.
In the Mountain West, specifically the Mountain Division, which would be playing football in very cold weather. Imagine a football game in Laramie, Fort Collins, or Logan in February. Does not sound all that fun.
Also, there is obviously the gigantic elephant in the room which is COVID-19, and who knows if a vaccine will be widely available or we understand the virus more in just a few months. Maybe there will be better rapid testing that can help with contact-tracing to limit the spread.
OK, now that all of the negative is out of the way, let’s discuss how a college football season in the spring could play itself out.
Jeff Brohm Plan
Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm came up with a plan, a mere day or so after the Big Ten shut down its season, and it is fairly detailed and has good ideas. He recognized the need for fewer padded practices and that is something he is familiar with from following how NFL practices work.
Scroll through this gallery to see his detailed plan that has a spring and fall season from his Big Ten point of view, or click this link for larger views.
The short version in bullet point form.
- Eight-game season starting on February 27 – April 17.
- One padded practice a week.
- Division games, one crossover rival and one crossover game based on the order of finish.
- Postseason May 1 – May 15. Playoff and bowl games.
- 10 game fall season Oct. 2 – Dec. 11 with training camp a month prior.
Go through the entire article and the gallery to get a full idea of this plan because what coach Brohm has put forward makes a lot of sense.
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