Let’s throw out some ideas regarding what an abbreviated 2020 college football season might look like.

The only thing that would make sense of shortening the season for ALL of college football would be eliminating out of conference games. This way college football still could have a season of say 8-9 games played starting first of October. This is only if we are able to get ahead of this global epidemic we are witnessing. I think we will have football, but who really knows???

(04-03-2020 11:00 AM)BigOwensboroCard Wrote:  The only thing that would make sense of shortening the season for ALL of college football would be eliminating out of conference games.

So you're volunteering to inform Navy that they have to cancel the Army-Navy game?

An alternative would be to delay the start of the season until the end of March 2021 and play a full regular season (including CCG) but no post season (bowls or CFP).

Cut the first 4 weeks of the season out (non-conference schedule)

The pandemic should be on its back foot by August but the kids will need more time for practice.

Put the games on TV without crowds at the stadium.

(04-03-2020 11:25 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 11:00 AM)BigOwensboroCard Wrote:  The only thing that would make sense of shortening the season for ALL of college football would be eliminating out of conference games.

So you're volunteering to inform Navy that they have to cancel the Army-Navy game?

I think you'd have to make an exception for the independents, but it would create some weird schedules, where the independents would likely basically just play each other in a round robin.

Though I can't imagine Notre Dame would love playing UMass/NMSU/Liberty/UConn/Army too much, with BYU as a marquee game, if it really came to that. You can throw in Tarleton St, Dixie St, and Presbyterian, if you really want.

Double-elimination tournament lol

(04-03-2020 01:41 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 11:25 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 11:00 AM)BigOwensboroCard Wrote:  The only thing that would make sense of shortening the season for ALL of college football would be eliminating out of conference games.

So you're volunteering to inform Navy that they have to cancel the Army-Navy game?

I think you'd have to make an exception for the independents, but it would create some weird schedules, where the independents would likely basically just play each other in a round robin.

Though I can't imagine Notre Dame would love playing UMass/NMSU/Liberty/UConn/Army too much, with BYU as a marquee game, if it really came to that. You can throw in Tarleton St, Dixie St, and Presbyterian, if you really want.

I'm not sure anyone is worried about the Independents since they represent 8% of FBS.

For ***** sake its April.......

All projections, even the worst case scenario curves, show this thing completely negligible by July. However, the question is whether a second wave comes or not late in the Fall. If everything is calm this Summer, do we actually cancel a season based on the "potential" of a second wave when there are no more active cases this Summer?

I just don’t see it happening folks. If you look at the cases state by state, COVID-19 is very bad in New York and California. What happens on the coasts usually moves toward the middle of the country.

This is going to get worse before it gets better.

The virus may wane in late August but will flair up again this fall in late September to Early October. I haven’t seen the true R Naught yet but in Mid-March they were saying 2.0-2.5. I would venture to guess it is closer to 3.0 - 3.5 in reality.

As much as I want to see college football this fall, I believe it would a terrible decision to bring thousands of fans into the stadiums in the middle of a pandemic.

Believe me, I’m hoping we get back to life (and sports) like normal. Here’s my idea:

Conference games only, Indy schools make deals to “join” conferences for the year:

ACC: ND, UConn (16 teams)
MWC: BYU, NMSU (14 teams)
AAC: Army (12 teams)
MAC: UMass, Liberty (14 teams)

(04-03-2020 01:41 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 11:25 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 11:00 AM)BigOwensboroCard Wrote:  The only thing that would make sense of shortening the season for ALL of college football would be eliminating out of conference games.

So you're volunteering to inform Navy that they have to cancel the Army-Navy game?

I think you'd have to make an exception for the independents, but it would create some weird schedules, where the independents would likely basically just play each other in a round robin.

Though I can't imagine Notre Dame would love playing UMass/NMSU/Liberty/UConn/Army too much, with BYU as a marquee game, if it really came to that. You can throw in Tarleton St, Dixie St, and Presbyterian, if you really want.

Doesn't work. The idea that Navy has to drop Army but play Tulsa, or USC has to drop Notre Dame but play Utah, or Florida State has to drop Florida but play Boston College, etc., etc. -- that's a non-starter.

Just shelve these ideas and cancel the season.

Half assing this may result in more dead Americans.

(04-03-2020 03:30 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Believe me, I’m hoping we get back to life (and sports) like normal. Here’s my idea:

Conference games only, Indy schools make deals to “join” conferences for the year:

ACC: ND, UConn (16 teams)
MWC: BYU, NMSU (14 teams)
AAC: Army (12 teams)
MAC: UMass, Liberty (14 teams)

I like this a lot. Maybe with bye weeks and allowing all teams to play Army-Navy week keep one Marquee OOC game.

(04-03-2020 03:42 PM)TerryD Wrote:  Just shelve these ideas and cancel the season.

Half assing this may result in more dead Americans.

It's not in the hands of coaches and ADs anyway. If students are not on campus and in the classrooms taking classes this fall, then there won't be college athletics at that time. It's delusional to think there will be college football games while at the same time campuses are closed to everything but online classes.

(04-03-2020 03:07 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I just don’t see it happening folks. If you look at the cases state by state, COVID-19 is very bad in New York and California. What happens on the coasts usually moves toward the middle of the country.

This is going to get worse before it gets better.

The virus may wane in late August but will flair up again this fall in late September to Early October. I haven’t seen the true R Naught yet but in Mid-March they were saying 2.0-2.5. I would venture to guess it is closer to 3.0 - 3.5 in reality.

As much as I want to see college football this fall, I believe it would a terrible decision to bring thousands of fans into the stadiums in the middle of a pandemic.

Yeah, I feel as if though it's going to be all-or-nothing. Either it's going to be deemed safe enough (however that's defined) to play all games or it's not going to be safe to play any of them. If it's not safe to play 12 games, how is it somehow safer to play 8 or 9 games, especially where (a) the participants are pretty directly hitting/touching each other in a way that's the exact opposite of social distancing and (b) the spectators, to the extent that they are even allowed, would be in the tens of thousands packed in together.

Plus, even if the issues get under control in the large metro areas over the next couple of months, that still doesn't mean that there won't be outbreaks in other places. That's particularly the case with college towns where you have students jammed in close quarters in dorms and apartments. The measures right now are to prevent a complete overwhelming collapse of our health care system as opposed to any belief that people will suddenly stop transmitting the coronavirus completely in the near future. The hope for the fall is simply slowing down the transmission of the virus to a manageable level as opposed to thinking that it will be anywhere close to eradicated.

I'm generally an optimistic person, but it's tough to see how people can go to restaurants for the foreseeable future, much less mass gatherings at sporting events or concerts or even feeling that it's safe for the players to play even without spectators (and that's terrible because I love our local restaurants and so many of them aren't going to survive). America and the world will get through this period, but I think it's going to be longer than we think and our progress isn't going to be linear (e.g. there will be outbreaks even after we think that we have it under control).

(04-03-2020 02:45 PM)otown Wrote:  All projections, even the worst case scenario curves, show this thing completely negligible by July. However, the question is whether a second wave comes or not late in the Fall. If everything is calm this Summer, do we actually cancel a season based on the "potential" of a second wave when there are no more active cases this Summer?

I'm not aware of any projections that show this as negligible by July. I also don't know of any public health experts who are questioning whether a second wave will come in the Fall. Where are you getting your information?

(04-03-2020 04:15 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 03:07 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I just don’t see it happening folks. If you look at the cases state by state, COVID-19 is very bad in New York and California. What happens on the coasts usually moves toward the middle of the country.

This is going to get worse before it gets better.

The virus may wane in late August but will flair up again this fall in late September to Early October. I haven’t seen the true R Naught yet but in Mid-March they were saying 2.0-2.5. I would venture to guess it is closer to 3.0 - 3.5 in reality.

As much as I want to see college football this fall, I believe it would a terrible decision to bring thousands of fans into the stadiums in the middle of a pandemic.

Yeah, I feel as if though it's going to be all-or-nothing. Either it's going to be deemed safe enough (however that's defined) to play all games or it's not going to be safe to play any of them. If it's not safe to play 12 games, how is it somehow safer to play 8 or 9 games, especially where (a) the participants are pretty directly hitting/touching each other in a way that's the exact opposite of social distancing and (b) the spectators, to the extent that they are even allowed, would be in the tens of thousands packed in together.

Plus, even if the issues get under control in the large metro areas over the next couple of months, that still doesn't mean that there won't be outbreaks in other places. That's particularly the case with college towns where you have students jammed in close quarters in dorms and apartments. The measures right now are to prevent a complete overwhelming collapse of our health care system as opposed to any belief that people will suddenly stop transmitting the coronavirus completely in the near future. The hope for the fall is simply slowing down the transmission of the virus to a manageable level as opposed to thinking that it will be anywhere close to eradicated.

I'm generally an optimistic person, but it's tough to see how people can go to restaurants for the foreseeable future, much less mass gatherings at sporting events or concerts or even feeling that it's safe for the players to play even without spectators (and that's terrible because I love our local restaurants and so many of them aren't going to survive). America and the world will get through this period, but I think it's going to be longer than we think and our progress isn't going to be linear (e.g. there will be outbreaks even after we think that we have it under control).

+3 post
Lots of good insight here, as always Frank.
Like you, I am usually an optimist.
In the case of this virus, better safe than sorry.

(04-03-2020 04:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 03:42 PM)TerryD Wrote:  Just shelve these ideas and cancel the season.

Half assing this may result in more dead Americans.

It's not in the hands of coaches and ADs anyway. If students are not on campus and in the classrooms taking classes this fall, then there won't be college athletics at that time. It's delusional to think there will be college football games while at the same time campuses are closed to everything but online classes.

That's a real question.