A JERSEY GUY: CFB season now in hands of the Presidents
Everybody has a plan or plans.
Each school, each conference has listed protocols of how to jump start the 2020 college football season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While some plans are more extensive than others, there is one point which no one disputes
If college football begins in September or October, with a truncated season, it must start with the students on campus, presumably attending classes, although there is some debate about where virtual classes fits.
And that call will be made by the University Presidents.
""We can make all the plans in the world and we are working on them every day,'' said American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco. ""But if the campuses shut down, we're done. And that call will be made on the presidential level.''
The theory is sound.
How can you allow a football team to play and practice if you don't feel the environment on campus is safe enough on campus to let the student body return?''
Which begs other questions<?
What happens if one school from a conference decide not to have in person classes, while the other schools are completely open?
Take USC for example, where the recommendation from the administration has been to take classes on line and stay away from the campus.
Can you have a mostly empty campus with a football team preparing for the season on campus?
And if USC is not allowed to play football, what does the Pac-12 do with games against the Trojans. Label them as forfeits, not count them at all?
The good news about this uncertainty is that we are coming to a cross roads, which should be within the next two weeks.
Two of the Power 5 conferences have already said they are eliminating the non-conference part of their schedule, while the Big 12, SEC and ACC are waiting for more information before making an announcement.
The consensus opinion is that there will be NO announced shut down of the 2020 football season, but a delay in the start until either the last week of September or the first week of October.
An announcement of a conference only, plus one or plus two (non conference games against traditional opponents) will be the compromise solution.
Delaying the start of the season by a few weeks will give the schools some more time for the COVID-19 situation to stabilize.
It will give the schools more time to set up testing procedures, and practice and game protocols.
The trickle down effect for FCS conferences will continue with postponements and cancellations, but the Power 5 conferences will continue to fight to salvage whatever they can of a season that is more and more in jeopardy.
But the final call will not be made on the athletic level, it will be made on the Presidential Level, or even higher that that in states where the COVID-19 level remains out of control.