In case you were sleeping like any sane human being would be, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline appeared on CNN just after midnight on Sunday morning and didn’t provide much optimism about the chances of college football or any college sport for the time being.
I am yet to find any video of his appearance to link to but thanks to the likes of Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach on Twitter, we were able to get the most-significant of quotes from Hainline’s appearance.
- “The pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now. Everything would have to line up perfectly.”
- “If testing stays as it is, there’s no way we could go forward with sports.”
- Added the greater risk is regular students resocializing on campuses. Says that could be “the downfall” if schools can’t handle that.
If you’re hoping college football gets played by the ACC, Big 12 and SEC in less than a month, it’s not the kind of comments you want to wake up to be reading today.
Our colleague Clint Lamb of Roll Tide Wire then made a compelling point about why there being no college football this fall is in the best interest of the NCAA, and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with anyone’s physical health.
From a recruiting standpoint, current players, dealing with fans (and parents now), all of it.. none of the Big Ten, Pac-12 or NCAA want to see any P5 conference play a season.
If no one plays, it’s a level playing field. Massive financial hits, but everyone is in the same boat.
— Clint Lamb (@ClintRLamb) August 16, 2020
As I’ve said all along this is an outcome that is next to impossible to predict. Some thought the significant amount of positive tests at Clemson, LSU and Alabama months ago meant there was no way we’d even get to now without everything being called off for the fall.
With the rest of students returning to college campuses across the country over the last week and this next one, the real indicator is still to come after we see how quickly this virus does or does not spread over said campuses.