The 2020 college football season is close to being cancelled, but it keeps fans and players hanging on.
It’s not you, it’s the 2020 college football season.
You’re fine. It’s not anything you did, but the 2020 college football season is trying to break up with you.
It’s not because of your politics.
It’s not because you aren’t supportive.
It’s not because you forgot to wear a mask that one time when picking up your salted caramel & banana cream pancake breakfast from Denny’s.
There are circumstances beyond everyone’s control, and it’s just not working out.
[jwplayer muPr0F4N]
I didn’t want to be the one to say it – because your relationship seemed so promising just a few days ago – but the 2020 college football season is a hot mess, and you’re probably better off with that really cute 2021 thing that’s about to come by in a snap.
But the 2020 college football season just can’t let you go.
It’s still wants to go out to dinner, it might want to take a trip in the spring, and it’s saying it might want to hang out in certain ways, but a B1G part of the relationship probably won’t be around anymore.
I’m sorry. Everyone wants to see you two kids get together, but it’s not looking promising.
There are other college football seasons in the sea.
The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 1
2020 has been awful. It’s been disastrous, it’s been horrific, it’s been tragic, it’s been heartbreaking, it’s been unfathomable, and it’s also been revolutionary.
Now, 2020 has taken a new turn to the stupid.
YOU … HAD … FOUR … MONTHS, college football.
Where was the coordinated plan? Where was the idea to keep the players safe? Where were the outside-the-box thoughts and ideas to do this responsibly?
This is only a multi-billion dollar business, and yet the college presidents and athletic directors came up with a fat load of nothing.
And the real kicker? It’s not even the NCAA’s fault – at least not entirely – and it really doesn’t have anything to do with state-by-state policies on mask wearing and social distancing.
Most of the Big Ten and Pac-12 states were ahead of things when it came to masks and trying to do what’s recommended, and they’re the conferences reportedly leading the charge to shut it all down because they don’t know how to come up with a safe season.
Each conference was left to come up with a plan, and no one had it. No one had any idea how to make college football go. (That’s partly because the schools can’t figure out how to make college go, either, as more than a very, very expensive streaming service, but that’s for another day.)
You had four months, and now we’re here.
The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 2
Don’t say “the MAC” as a reason why the Power 5 programs are on the brink of cancelling the season, or I’m hanging up. The Power 5 does whatever the Power 5 wants to do.
Don’t you dare say “the media” as a reason why the Power 5 programs are on the brink of cancelling the season, or I’m hanging up triple-hard.
Forget your politics for a moment. Are you THAT far gone to really believe that a college president is going to take the most unpopular stance possible by voting to cancel a college football season – which almost certainly would lead to a death threats, possible job loss, and waving goodbye to a whole lot of fund raising – because of a few articles from some sportswriter who you actually think doesn’t like sports?
Don’t say “a vaccine” as a reason why the can might be kicked to spring of 2021, or I’m hanging up with with condescension.
Really, Big Ten? You want to play college football in Minneapolis, Madison, Ann Arbor, etc., in (bleep)ing February?
Really, college football? You’re concerned about player safety now, but you’re interested in the idea of what amounts to ten months of the sport in a calendar year? You really think you can finish up a spring season in May, and turn around three months later and kick things off again?
Oh, and by the way, Big Ten, what the hell are you doing?
First, you release your full schedule on a Tuesday. It’s built with the big showdowns early and openings later, with the assumption that some games will be postponed. And then, just a few days later, you decide you might want to cancel everything?
You know what you want to do – why didn’t you just end this a week ago?
There’s a global pandemic. People would be mad, but everyone gets it, even if they say they don’t. But now, Big Ten, you’re too chicken to simply cancel your own season because you want the optics of other conferences to join you?
And … you’re so worried about playing a season, but YOU’RE STILL ALLOWING FALL PRACTICES TO GO ON?!
The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 3
I’m just that dumb to still believe that there might be some semblance of a season. This take is probably freezing cold by the time you read it, but I still don’t buy into the idea that all the conferences are 100% on board with dropping the 2020 campaign.
I’m just that dumb to believe that some conference out there is seeing what’s happening as an opportunity.
“Go ahead, Big Ten and probably the Pac-12 – quit. More TV revenue, attention, and big-time transfers for us.”
I’m just that dumb to go from 47% convinced three weeks ago to 99.3% that the College Football Playoff will be Liberty and the three service academies.
I’m just that dumb to tin-foil hat believe that – at least in some way – the conferences are doing all of this to squash the player rights movement before it gets any traction.
The stupid 2020 college football season, Part 4
I write for COLLEGE FOOTBALL News. Of course I want a 2020 college football season, but I only want it if it’s as safe as can reasonably be played.
At the end of the day, everyone, it’s just a game, and it’s supposed to be fun.
We don’t know the long-term effects of this horrific virus on the human body. The odds are overwhelming that a college-age player who gets this won’t die, but that’s not really the point.
Yeah, they’re young adults, and yeah, they’re almost all on scholarship, but they’re not professional athletes. Each one is someone’s kid who was sent off to college.
That’s why, to be brutally honest, I feel oily going too hard backing the #WeWantToPlay trending movement, since I professionally benefit from these guys – who aren’t going to get paid – who just want to go out there and have fun.
With that said, as someone who’s 100% for players’ rights …
College players – now, more than ever – desperately need professional representation looking out for their best interests.
Negotiation 101: Don’t give up your leverage.
You can’t look all desperate with your #WeWantToPlay thing, and then come up with a list of demands – as reasonable as they are.
Among those demands …
“Establish universal mandated health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college-athletes against COVID-19.”
Yeah, no (bleep). Guys, if they could’ve figured THAT out, we wouldn’t be here. And because of that …
Nah, we don’t want to lose you, 2020 college football season.
You treat us like crap, you tease us, you’re probably devastating to our health, and now you’re threatening to leave.
It’s okay. If you love something, set it free, and if it comes back it’s yours, or something creepy like that.
College football, we’re still here for you – even if you need a break so everything until everything is okay.
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