What will college football be like in 2020?
We’ve asked this question a bunch from spring and now into summer with things seemingly being pointed in the right direction over the last few weeks.
At least until this past weekend as positive COVID-19 tests came back from campuses nationwide as football players have begun voluntary workouts.
Paul Finebaum, the sometimes voice of reason and often times shock-jock college football talker shared his thoughts on the latest in regards to the 2020 college football season as he joined WJOX in Birmingham, Alabama on Monday.
Some notable quotes from Finebaum, who no matter what you think of him, is certainly connected to football programs, especially in the southeast:
“I think college football is literally at a crossroads right now in trying to get the season underway,”
“Until now I would say the last six weeks have been amazingly positive and everything has been geared towards the season and that hit a roadblock over the weekend. It was a grim, dark weekend for college football. And for every other sport too. I mean it’s not like anyone has figured this thing out but college football has the most challenging road ahead.”
“And, I mean, we’ve all hearing the same things, I mean the numbers are are enormous across the country, even in Alabama. I’ve heard double digits at Auburn, double digits at Alabama. Should this be expected? I thought they would be handfuls at every school, I didn’t think the numbers would be this big. And this is without anyone on campus. These are fairly controlled environments. And I think the big story, it may not be so much about college football but what are the odds of students getting back on campus if this is the circumstance?
“College sports can always control things a lot better than the normal population. The issue here is unless you quarantine players, which you can’t really do on a college campus, this is not going away.”
-Paul Finebaum on WJOX Birmingham, Alabama
And here we enter the ultimate catch-22. Perhaps the virus can be contained if it’s only football players or athletes on campuses and they stay essentially living in quarantine and only dealing with other people who haven’t tested positive for the virus.
But then that takes away the entire idea of amateurism because let’s face it, the only reason football teams would be there is to make money for their respective schools, something nobody would really be able to deny.
Or you welcome back the entire campus full of students but then have practically no control whatsoever over the spread of the virus on campus, or at gathering spots off campus, for that matter.
There certainly is no easy solution to this. Notre Dame and other schools have already announced different school schedules this year that get students on campus early in the fall and send them home from Thanksgiving through the new year.
There certainly isn’t an easy answer or solution to any of this and like I said last week when the Texas news came out, it’s concerning now but let’s check numbers in a couple of weeks and see if players and teams have seen a substansial decline in positive tests before I’m ready to start thinking this college football season isn’t starting by Labor Day.