Commissioners, Analysts and Dabo Swinney: 3 Differing Views on the College Football Season

For the sports fans, especially those of college sports, the question of when—or better yet if—their sports will return.

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across every aspect of life. From shopping to exercise to simply getting a haircut, everyday life has been affected in ways that few could envision.

For the sports fans, especially those of college sports, the question of when—or better yet if—their sports will return.

"Commissioners plan to push such dates as far into the summer as they can in order to continue collecting data, but there is of course a deadline. To start the season on time, players need to return to campus for training at or around July 15, commissioners say, to begin what is being described as a six-week training camp."

According to ACC commissioner John Swofford, the decision when must decisions be made to begin on-campus athletic training and on whether to delay the season’s start is one that is quickly approaching.

"We’re looking at June 1 from an NCAA standpoint and collective standpoint as a day to reconsider everything and get everybody on the same page as much as we can," Swofford told SI's Dellenger and Forde. "I think there will be a framework of ‘Here’s what’s allowable from an NCAA standpoint.’

One idea that has been batted around by many national analysts has been a split (fall-winter) season, or even a spring season due to the risk of a reemergence of the virus in the fall.

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit stated that, unless a vaccine was ready for use, he did not see a way that football can be played.

“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens,” Herbstreit said. “Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.

"Next thing you know you got a locker room full of guys that are sick. And that’s on your watch? I wouldn’t want to have that ... As much as I hate to say it, I think we're scratching the surface of where this thing's gonna go."

However, it was not only Herbstreit that has doubts about whether or not football will be played this fall. Former Clemson football SID and current color analyst for the Clemson Tiger Radio Network Tim Bourret shared his thoughts on Twitter Mar. 27.

"Watching press conference. Sen. Lindsey Graham has repeatedly said the Coronavirus will return in fall," Bourret wrote. "If that is case, I dont [sic] see any college football this fall, even if some businesses open up in summer. How can you start season in Sept knowing virus will return in Nov?"

However, the idea that football could be played in the spring is not a realistic one according to Swofford.

"The longer you’d go into the spring semester the more complicated it gets in every way, including the athletes in our football programs that envision an NFL career, as well as playing a season into the spring and turning around, for those players coming back, playing another full season starting in September. It’s a huge hypothetical," he said.

It should come as no surprise that the, sometimes, overly optimistic outlook on things has placed Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney at odds with some of the national media when it comes to his belief that college football will be played this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"My preference is let's get to work and let's go play," Swinney said April 3. "That's the best-case scenario and I think that's what's going to happen. I have zero doubt that we're going to be playing. The stands are going to be packed and the Valley is going to be rocking. I don't have any doubt. That's the only thought I have."

"I've got one plan, and that is to get the Tigers ready to play come late August," Swinney added. "This is America, man. We've stormed the beaches of Normandy. We've driven a car on Mars. We've walked the moon. We have the smartest people in the world. We are going to rise up and we're going to kick this thing right in the teeth and get back to our lives." 

Whether you believe that there will be a 2020 season in some form or fashion, or if you believe that the 151st season of college football will be held in 2021, one thing is certain — Americans are scared.

Not just that there won't be a football season, but that they won't be able to feed their families. That they won't be able to buy essential items. That they won't be able to leave their house without a mask. Those fears are all real, and all valid. Football will eventually return, either in 2020 or 2021. 

And when that day comes Swinney will be right about one thing, there will be a "big old party."