College Football Key Questions: Can A Spring Football Season Happen?

In this unprecedented time for college sports, we’ll work on some of the key questions. Can a spring football season really work?

In this unprecedented time for college sports, we’ll work on some of the key questions. Can a spring football season really happen?


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Can a spring football season in 2021 happen?

My first reaction was, “absolutely not.”

The logistics are a nightmare, there’s no real point, and the idea of playing in the spring seemed like nothing more than blather by the Big Ten and other leagues to cushion the blow of – let’s call it what it is – cancelling the 2020 fall football season.

But semantics do matter here. Instead of using the word cancel, postpone is more to the point, considering the idea will be for the spring of 2021 to serve as the 2020 fall campaign.

If there’s money to be recouped from a spring session, college football will find a way to play.

Can it really happen?

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Jeff Brohm seems to think so

The Purdue head coach – along with all but killing the exact column I was doing – came up with a very detailed, very interesting idea on how to structurally play in the spring. He’s not alone, with Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, among others, claiming that it’s possible.

At the very least, it’s a jumping off point for a sport that wasn’t exactly proactive in its planning for what could happen if the virus didn’t go away in time to have a fall season.

The coaches are going to want this. A football coach without a football season is about as useful as a remote control without batteries. If there’s a shot to play football, coaches will sell it.

Oh yeah, that virus thing

If this all starts up in late January or early February, that means teams will need to be ready to start practicing for real in mid-December – that’s four months away from right now.

There’s not going to be a working vaccine available, but the real hope is for better, faster, and more reliable testing – which was the hope back in mid-March, too.

It’s essentially what the Pac-12 said in its guide as part of the rationale for halting fall sports, specifically football.

“Testing capacity needs to increase to allow for more frequent testing, performed closer to game time, and with more rapid turn-around time to prevent spread of infection and enhance the safety of all student-athletes, coaches, and staff involved, particularly in situations where physical distancing and mask wearing cannot be maintained. This will require access to significant capacity of point-of-care testing and rapid turn-around time, which is currently very limited.”

This is it. This is everything.

For all the planning, all the bickering, and all the different opinions across the various social media platforms, a spring football season in 2021 – and, not to get into this yet, but a 2021 fall campaign, too – isn’t going to happen at anything close to normal, if at all, without a way to be almost certain that everyone on the field is fine.

So let’s say that around December 10ish we have a solid set of national protocols that all the colleges and conferences are cool with.

NEXT: Eligibility, NFL Draft, recruiting

College Football 2020 Season: No Big Ten, Pac-12, What’s Really Going On?

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their fall seasons. So now what for them, and for the rest of college football?

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their fall seasons. So now what for them, and for the rest of college football?


Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

They’ve been among the wildest, craziest, and saddest few days in the history of college football – at least off the field.

Start with this – the entire sport didn’t shut down like many thought it might when the doom-and-gloom predictions started on Sunday night.

What’s really going on, and what’s going to happen going forward?

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5. The Big Ten and Pac-12 hit the pause button

It wasn’t a total stunner that the two big conferences decided not to play their respective 2020 fall college football seasons, but it wasn’t quite supposed to happen like it did on Tuesday.

The Pac-12 was always on the verge of shutting things down.

From the outbreak of the virus in Arizona, to the concerns with a new wave in Los Angeles, to several schools throughout California choosing to operate remotely, it was always just a question of time before it was all going to be over.

The player demands and movement weren’t why the conference chose not to play in the fall of 2020, and that wasn’t likely a big factor, but the demands for change hit a major roadblock after this.

The league simply decided it couldn’t do it. From travel, to logistics, to the lack of adequate testing, the recommendation was that the Pac-12 not play a full contact sport like football this fall, and that was it.

It wasn’t so easy for the Big Ten, especially considering it announced the shutdown just before the news broke that Kamala Harris was going to be Joe Biden’s VP choice. The Pac-12 announced its news after.

News leaked out on Monday that the B1G was going to shut down, the pushback made it seem like there was still hope, and then, by early afternoon on Tuesday, it was all done.

The thought was that the league was going to take a step back and wait a few weeks by moving its schedule start from the first week of September to the last week like the other Power 5 conferences, but nope. The presidents decided to stop the fall season.

Both conferences join the MAC and Mountain West in the idea of playing in the spring – more time to figure out a consistent plan (in other words, better testing) – but the dust has to settle first.

Too many questions have to be answered, from eligibility, to the transfer potential, to whether or not Nebraska – who wants to break ranks and play – might come up with a schedule of its own.

And now …

NEXT: Can the Big Ten and Pac-12 really play in the spring?

Big Ten Cancels Fall College Football Season, Might Play In Spring

The Big Ten will cancel its fall season – according to reports – and attempt to play this spring.

The Big Ten will cancel its fall season – according to reports – and attempt to play this spring.


The Big Ten is going cancel the fall season and move on to the spring.

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After hinting about it over the last several weeks, and after it was leaked on Monday that the Big Ten presidents were 12-2 against playing in the fall, the league has decided to cancel the 2020 fall season and will try playing this spring.

More coming in a few moments …

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College Football Conferences: Who Will Play In 2020, Who Won’t? The Best Guess Is …

After a crazy few days for college football, what’s the status of each of the conferences. Who’ll play this season, and who won’t?

After a crazy few days for college football, what’s the status of each of the conferences. Who’ll play this season, and who won’t?


So, you want to know whether or not your college football conference is playing this fall?

Get in line. This thing is changing by the tweet after the world went bonkers over the last 72 hours.

On Saturday morning the MAC was done, on Sunday evening the entire season was supposedly going to be shut down, and on Monday morning the Dan Patrick Show was telling everyone the Big Ten and Pac-12 were tapping out.

And then everyone got mad.

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Trevor Lawrence let the world to know that college football players want to play college football, college football coaches let the world know that they like college football, and as predictable as Ohio State over Michigan in late November, the president took a sledgehammer to a delicately nuanced situation and politicized it.

The Big Ten pumped the brakes, the rest of the conferences wanted nothing to do with the pounding the B1G was taking, and now there’s supposedly still a chance of a fall football season in some form.

The talk ranged from spring ball in 2021 – total silliness thrown out there to cushion the blow of no 2020 season – to the utter nonsense of Ohio State and Nebraska chirping about finding other places to play. (You’re out of your freaking mind if you think the Big Ten will let the Buckeyes or Huskers play one down in any other league. Two words: TV contracts. Non-conference games, though …)

On a far more serious note, college football fans are about to become heart experts as they learn about the nightmare of a possible COVID-19 side effect called myocarditis.

So now what?

This will be updated on the fly as much as possible, but for now, here’s the best guess on the go-no-go launch status of each conference. All the percentage guesses are based on their apparent respective desires to play or not play if allowed the choice.

ACC

It’s been strangely silent, other than the movement kicked off by Trevor Lawrence.

This is one of the more interesting situations because of the Notre Dame factor. The league has a unique opportunity to have the Irish all to itself for a season, and as long as they’re happy, the league will be happy.

There might be a concern about the status of the other four Power Five conferences, but according to Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, the ACC will “absolutely” play in 2020.

Best Guess Status For 2020: 80% will play


American Athletic Conference

The AAC has the same problem the other Group of Five conferences are dealing with: they’re losing their key revenue-making non-conference dates.

After announcing on August 5th a plan to play eight conference games, the news went back-and-forth throughout Monday. It’s still not a sure thing, but …

Best Guess Status For 2020: 70% will play


Big Ten

The Detroit Free Press went with the story on Monday morning that the Big Ten season was going to be cancelled, but that was before the final be-all-end-all-or-not vote happened.

The Big Ten presidents reportedly were 12-2 – Nebraska and Iowa the outliers – to cancel.

The pushback was swift and strong, with Ohio State, Michigan, and Nebraska the most vocal, at least among fans, coaches and players.

There’s a meeting at 10:30 am ET to make a decision on what to do next.

From all the rumors, news, and opinions flying around, it seems like 1) the medical evaluators don’t think the Big Ten can pull this off, which means 2) the presidents don’t think they can pull this off, which means either 3) the league has a PR disaster coming by cancelling the 2020 season, or 4) the presidents will look like they caved to the pressure of football if they decide to go forward with a campaign.

Oh yeah, and commissioner Kevin Warren is talking about playing in the spring. February football in Minneapolis and East Lansing – yippee.

One key note. The Big Ten is currently scheduled to start its season in early September. while others  are expected to start several weeks later. So …

Best Guess Status For 2020: 70% cancel, 30% delay, with a lean towards kicking the can down the road by suggesting a late September start.

NEXT: Big 12, Conference USA, Independents, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt

Locked on Longhorns Podcast: ‘We Want To Play, Big 10 cancelled?’

The latest Locked on Longhorns Podcast discusses the ‘We Want To Play’ movement that started Sunday. Plus is the Big 10 cancelled?

It seems as if we know a lot and nothing all at the same time. In an attempt to gauge the temperature around the college football landscape, it seems like a lot of battle for position. On Sunday night players, coaches and athletic directors took to Twitter to voice their opinion on the top of playing football. This movement came off the heels of the Big Ten Conference allegedly getting ready to cancel the 2020 season.

Clemson’s star quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields joined players from Power Five conferences with the hashtag “We Want To Play.” Lawrence has been vocal about players needing to be on campus, he sent a series of tweets pleading his case. As far as the Big 12 is concerned, they are scheduling a Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday to make their final decision on playing football in 2020.

One rumor on the docket being four Big Ten schools heading to the Big 12 to play football for one season. Bruce Feldman of the Athletic refuted the report on Twitter. The rumored schools were Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa and former Big 12 foe Nebraska. Another report from the Dan Patrick show discussed Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC for one season. Seems farfetched but it would be a fun idea. Maybe the Longhorns could finally get their hands on the Texas A&M Aggies once again.

The Tony Fields II saga is continuing as Longhorns fans are waiting on his transfer announcement. All reports are trending towards Texas but he has yet to make a formal announcement. It could be due to the fact that a school he was looking at Minnesota is part of the Big Ten, they are set to cancel the season. Also Myron Warren has removed himself from the transfer portal.

Plus we discuss Longhorns in the NFL, Charles Omenihu and Alex Okafor.

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Big Ten Cancels Fall Season. What’s Next For College Football?

The Big Ten has canceled its 2020 football season due to concerns over the coronavirus. What’s next for college football?

The Big Ten has canceled its 2020 football season due to concerns over the coronavirus. What’s next for college football?


The Big Ten is going to do it. It’s going to cancel its 2020 college football season.

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It was rumored to happen for the last few weeks, and now it’s actually happening the Big Ten is cancelling college football for the 2020 fall.

The details of what’s next are still sketchy, but commissioner Kevin Warren has been hinting at the idea of a spring football season. Forgetting that it would mean two college football seasons in ten months, and that college football in Minneapolis and Madison would be delightful in February, there aren’t any details yet on how that might work.

This all started rolling over the weekend with reports of a meeting among conference presidents about the viability of a college football season, and then Monday morning the Dan Patrick Show went with the story that the Big Ten was going to shut things down.

In the end, it was just too much. The Big Ten types have been hinting from the start that they didn’t believe they could safely make it all work. There were liability concerns, player safety issues, the lack of revenue from no fans in the stands, and then when it finally came time to practice and get it all going, the college presidents couldn’t make it work.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget the player movement side of things. Squashing the demands and the voices of players isn’t a bad thing for those who run the higher-levels of college athletics.

The Big Ten just gave the whole #WeWantToPlay movement one giant, “bless your heart.”

And now, very predictably, college football gets politicized. What could possibly go wrong?

What’s next for college football coming in a moment …

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