Stadium map of college football in the fall is eye-catching

This will get your attention.

In the world of the coronavirus, news flies across the wires very quickly. Situations accordingly change just as quickly. Recall the Big Ten putting out its adjusted schedule and then, a short time later, shutting down fall football for 2020. The Mid-American Conference’s decision to shut down fall football, plus some revelations of health complications in Big Ten athletes, quickly reframed the Big Ten’s outlook. In a period of 48 to 96 hours, the political and medical calculus of playing college football this year changed dramatically for the Big Ten.

In the world of the coronavirus, one day’s pronouncement could turn into the next day’s abrupt reversal. Plans and hopes don’t have a very long shelf life.

With this in mind, please realize that what you’re about to see today (August 15) might not last very long. It is subject to change.

Nevertheless, it is visually arresting.

Brett McMurphy of Stadium presented this map of where college football is currently being pursued… and shut down for the fall. The color codes are explained below the map. This is an eye-grabber:

One point worth making — among the many points one can make in response to this map — is that if we lived in the 2002 world of college football, before Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Boston College went to the ACC, and before other subsequent waves of conference realignment occurred a few years later, this map would have even more red and yellow, and even less green.

A good representative example here is the state of Florida. Imagine Miami as part of the Big East Conference, which is where it resided in 2002. The state’s smaller programs — Florida Atlantic and Florida International — probably couldn’t have gone forward with a season (as the Sun Belt and Conference USA are trying to do right now) in a 2002 context.

That last point might be rendered moot before too long. One has to wonder if the Sun Belt and C-USA have the resources to continue to go ahead with FBS football.

Nevertheless, the above map is unmistakable in its geographical clarity.