Franklin wants CFB back, even if some teams are missing from conferences. It’s a fine idea, until you think about it for more than 30 seconds.
Penn State coach James Franklin thinks there should be college football this fall, and doesn’t think that individual colleges staying closed should necessarily stop it from happening.
Franklin spoke to ESPN this week about how difficult it will be for all the Power 5 conferences to return simultaneously, especially with different states having different guidelines and protocols for re-opening in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I can’t imagine that right now we’re all going to open at the same time,” he said, via ESPN. “If the SEC, for example, opens up a month earlier than the Big Ten, and the Big Ten is able to open up and 12 of the 14 schools, if two schools can’t open, I don’t see a conference — any conference — penalizing 80% or 75% of the schools because 25% of them can’t open.”
He went on: “Say two or three of the schools in our conference that are ranked in the top 10 have the ability to open and a couple schools don’t, and you make the decision to hold the entire conference back, you’re hurting the conference as a whole in terms of your ability to compete.”
Franklin’s idea seems logical enough, but then … you think about it, and realize there’s no way.
Here are a dozen questions I just thought of in about ten seconds: Will the schools that don’t re-open have to forfeit the revenue they get from the conference? Who does that money go to? Will TV deals have to be re-negotiated if only, say, half the teams in a conference return to play? Do teams get bye weeks for the schools that are closed? How can the schedule be fair then? Will teams that are allowed to start up play fewer games? How many fewer? How many teams do you need to have a conference?
Let’s go on: Will the conferences have normal championships that year? How can they actually be considered conference champs if some of the teams didn’t play? Will players be allowed to transfer if their school doesn’t allow athletes to return? If the school doesn’t open, will players get another year of eligibility? What happens if a school opens late? Do they play half a season? How could that possibly work?
I have no answers, and I don’t think anyone does. In fact, the best quote I’ve seen this week is from Ohio governor Mike DeWine, who went on the Paul Finebaum Show this week and hit us with some honesty: “I don’t think we know, and anyone who tells you they know is making it up.”
Franklin’s idea seems fine enough — if some schools are ready to open, let them open. And then you think about it for 30 seconds, and realize, it won’t be that simple.
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