Tag: will there be college football

Former Georgia QB Justin Fields creates petition to reinstate Big Ten football season

Former UGA QB Justin Fields, now with the Ohio State Buckeyes, created petition to reinstate the Big Ten football season amid coronavirus

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has created an online petition to reinstate the 2020 Big Ten football season.

The former Georgia Bulldog, who transferred to Ohio State following the 2018 season, has been very vocal about his desire to play for a championship this fall with the Buckeyes.

Related: Georgia Football: COVID-19 status tracker

On Sunday morning, the Heisman hopeful created and shared an online petition that seeks to reinstate the 2020 Big Ten football season. The campaign, addressed to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, Big Ten university presidents, and Big Ten athletic directors, asks that the Big Ten overturn its decision to postpone the fall football season in 2020.

“We, the football players of the Big Ten, together with the fans and supporters of college football, request that the Big Ten Conference immediately reinstate the 2020 football season. Allow Big Ten players/teams to make their own choice as to whether they wish to play or opt out this fall season. Allow Big Ten players/teams who choose to opt out of playing a fall season to do so without penality or repercussion,” the petition reads.

The petition also explains why the players believe it is safe to play and why it is important to sign it.

“We want to play. We believe that safety protocols have been established and can be maintained to mitigate concerns of exposure to Covid 19. We believe that we should have the right to make decisions about what is best for our health and our future. Don’t let our hard work and sacrifice be in vain. #LetUsPlay!”

As of 12:30 pm ET Sunday, the petition has already collected over 30,000 signatures.

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CFB to be moved to July? One report suggests it as an alternative

Could coronavirus force the college football season to be moved to the summer? One report suggests it as an alternative.

With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world, the future of sports in 2020 is up in the air.

The NCAA has cancelled all spring sports, and that includes spring practices for football. The NBA has suspended its season. MLB opening day came and went with no baseball played.

When this will end, we don’t know. If there will even be a 2020 college football season, we don’t know.

There’s plenty of reason to think college football will be played in the fall, seeing as how we are still 5 months away from that first weekend in September.

But the fears of the virus making a return in cold weather is what is causing a decent amount of that uncertainty, given that much of the college football season is played in the colder weather of late October, November, December and into January., when virus’ like this tend to reappear.

One prominent college football analyst, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, even said he’d be shocked if the NCAA or the NFL went ahead with their 2020 seasons.

With the concern of not being able to play college football in its regular seasonal-slot, one story done by Michael Smith of the Sports Business Journal suggests that as an alternative scenario, college football could be played from July-September.

This would only work if the virus does indeed go away come summer months, but even then, does anybody really want college football to be played in the summer?

For starters, it’s too soon. Even if coronavirus and the fear of contracting it has settled, it’s just not enough time for people to feel comfortable sitting in a stadium sandwiched with 93,000 people.

There’s the heat. Imagine playing an SEC game in the middle July. No amount of passion could get me out of my house to endure such a torturing.

And there’s also the possibility that college campuses may not even be open.

Smith of SBJ outlined the potential issues with the summer season:

Would campuses be open and able to properly staff games?

Would media partners be receptive to such a radical idea? Given the pent-up demand for live events by then, perhaps so?

Would fans turn out for football in the summer, especially with temperatures in the 90s? Would they even be permitted inside the stadium?

Could athletic departments recoup some of the revenue they’ve lost by staging a summer season?

How would a season work? It would almost have to be conference games only. Teams could start with a June mini-camp, July training camp and eight or nine games in August and September with no postseason.

Dennis Dodd, CBS’ lead college football analyst, posted to Twitter that he had spoken with a high-ranking college athletics administrator who had never heard of the July kickoff.