Could the College Football Season Start in February?

Chris Fowler of ESPN gave his insight on the upcoming season today on his Instagram page. He laid out three options.

With the COVID-19 outbreak still gripping the country, it will be a monumental challenge to get any of the major sports back up and running this calendar year. College football is just a mere 20 weeks away from kicking off, and as Chris Fowler of ESPN put it, it doesn't appear likely that the season will kick off as planned. But in his video that he posted to Instagram, Fowler declares that he believes that football will indeed happen this year. 

He lays out three options for football based on "informed speculation". One, it could go on as scheduled starting in the fall. The second option would be that they play in November for a series of games, and then in the spring for another. The final, play the whole season starting in February. 

You can check out Fowler's entire thoughts here.

Getting the season to start on time seems like it will be a monumental task, given where the country is at the moment. If the goal is to gradually open up the country, large scale sporting events will most likely be one of the last steps in this process. With August only 16 weeks away, that is an incredibly short amount of time. And remember football teams need at least a month for training and preparation. Getting the world into a sem seems like it would be a very difficult mark to hit. 

Starting the games in November and having half the games in spring would give the world a little bit more time to ramp up testing, but even then a vaccine most likely will not be available. Having the games all in February would give the NCAA and the world what it badly needs, time. Hopefully by then the world will have figured out a testing and way to trace outbreaks to help minimize COVID-19, and there is a chance a vaccine would be out in the public. 

But what if the season starts in February. Every game played at Chestnut Hill would be an experience. The average temperature during this winter month is 39 degrees, and Boston averages eleven inches of snow as well. And that doesn't take into account extreme weather. There are days where there could be over a foot of snow, and temperatures could drop into the single digits. While it may not the most pleasant game to watch in person, it would give Boston College a unique home field advantage especially against schools like Clemson and UNC. Alumni Stadium could become the new tundra. 

In the end this could just be Chris Fowler speculating, but these options are worth discussing. As mentioned before on this site, football is the big money maker for most athletic departments. They may need to think outside the box to get this season played, and it's ideas like Fowlers that may make it happen.