On Wednesday, the Ivy League announced that it will not be holding any fall events. It seems that might be the case for more conferences to come, per 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello.
“Everyone is pessimistic,” in regards to an on-time start to the season, one Power 5 administrator told 247Sports this week.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still hitting parts of the nation, including the Southeast, hard, the idea that playing college football this fall is becoming one less that seems reasonable.
“We said from the onset of this pandemic that circumstances around the virus would guide our decision-making, and it is clear recent developments related to COVID-19 have not been trending in the right direction,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “There are important decisions to be made in the coming weeks and by late July there should be more clarity about the fall season. In the meantime, our athletics programs will continue to effectively manage the health and safety of our student-athletes as they continue voluntary activities on their respective campuses.”
From Marcello:
“Several conferences will utilize as much time as possible before making decisions throughout the fall. The SEC is expected to make a decision on whether to continue the season as planned in late July or early August, but they are not expected to entertain a full cancellation of fall sports as early as August, a source said. Most Power 5 conferences are willing to wait until the 11th hour and re-evaluate circumstances on a week-to-week basis through the fall, though many within the conference offices, particularly in the ACC, Pac-12 and SEC, have questioned the logistics of keeping players on campus if the season is delayed more than once.
“As it relates to thresholds of numbers of teams to conduct a season, we have modeled out many different scenarios for conducting a season but have not set thresholds in this regard,” Larry Scott said of the Pac-12
Meanwhile, on the ground, FBS schools continue to fight the virus on campuses that resemble ghost towns without student populations. Some athletic programs have been successful maintaining a bubble (Notre Dame has one positive test among 252 COVID-19 tests conducted within its athletics department since mid-June) while others shut down team activities (Kansas, Kansas State, Houston and Boise State) amid small outbreaks.
Optimism ebbs and flows.
“It depends on the week,” said a Power 5 head coach requesting anonymity. “I’m trying to stay positive and keep our guys safe and healthy right now.””
The upcoming weeks are going to be extremely important for whether we see our favorite teams take the field on time in September.