Without Students on Campus It's Unlikely We'll Have College Football This Fall

FBS Commissioners told Vice-President Pence on Wednesday that unless the students return to campus, there would be no football in the Fall

I wrote this paragraph last week:

If there is a college football season, would it start on time? Most teams are scheduled to start on Sept. 5. Fall camp would normally begin about Aug. 1. Because so many teams missed all or part of spring practice, coaches feel like they need an additional 2-to-3 week practice window in July just for conditioning. Would students even be on campus for summer school?

Later on in the week I told a radio show that University presidents, their Boards of Trustees, and state governors would ultimately decide if college football will be played in 2020. Because they will decide if the students will return to their respective campuses for the Fall semester.

And if the university is not considered safe for regular students, it is highly unlikely that a group of 100-plus football players and support staff will be brought in for sole purpose playing games.

That was the message The College Football Playoff management committee conveyed to Vice President Mike Pence during a conference call on Wednesday. The committee is made up the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick.

Their overriding message to the Vice President? If our students are not on campus, we’re not going to play football.

“We’re never in a position to look at these issues purely through an athletic lens,” Swarbrick told ESPN.com after the meeting. “There is no athletic calculus to engage in if our campuses aren’t reopened.”

“Our players are students. If we’re not in college, we’re not having contests,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told CBS.com.

There you go.

Let’s take the situation at the University of Georgia, where classes for the Fall Semester are scheduled to begin on Aug. 20. The students at Georgia have been off campus since March 16 and taking courses on line. The summer school sessions will also be taught on line.

But at some point—sooner rather than later—a decision will have to be made whether or not it is safe to bring students back to campus at the 30-plus schools that make up the University System of Georgia. And that decision is likely to come in May or June.

And if those students are not coming back, can you choose to bring back another set of students to that environment simply because they are good at playing football?

Let’s make it even simpler: If your son was on a college football team, would you want him back on a campus that was considered not safe enough for the rest of the student body?

You can have that conversation with the pros because they collectively bargain for their working conditions. They also get paid very handsomely to assume some risk. Ultimately it is their choice.

Look, everybody wants to play college football this Fall. We would miss it terribly. The financial consequences for NOT playing this season are dire for the schools.

But the optics of players being quarantined on empty campuses just to play football would be just brutal. And if some of those players ultimately got the infection history would not treat the decision makers kindly.

I talked to a number of people pretty high up the food chain on this issue. And most of them said the same thing: Unless there was some proven treatment or vaccine is developed in the next few months, it’s hard to see the students coming back to campus for the Fall semester. And if the students aren’t back, then, in all probability, football won’t be coming back this fall.

And here’s one other potential roadblock: What if the some states send students back to campus for the Fall semester but the governors of California and New York do not? The 130 FBS schools are located in about 40 states. All would have to be on board to have a solution.

Could the football season start in January or February?

Could? Yes.

Would? That’s another conversation for another day.