Pivotal week ahead for college football
FAYETTEVILLE — It is not hyperbole to say the events this week might be the most momentous in the modern era of college football.
By the end of the week, the powerful SEC is expected to make some kind of announcement about the viability of fall sports, headlined by the pigskin-covered cash cow called football. The decision, after the presidents and chancellors of the SEC convene, might be just to buy a little more time into August.
In these covid-19 days, hardly anything is written in stone.
The NCAA Board of Governors met Friday armed with requests from all the conferences asking for it to put off making a major decision about whether or not to conduct championships in the fall sports. And that’s what the board, which is scheduled to meet again on Aug. 4, decided.
Had they recommended a cancellation of fall championships, it would not have affected the Football Bowl Subdivision’s postseason,
because the FBS postseason is governed by the College Football Playoff, not the NCAA.
When the NCAA abruptly announced on March 12 that it would not conduct championships in spring sports, it blindsided conference commissioners, many of whom did not appreciate the lack of communication. The NCAA wisely did not repeat that act Friday.
However, there is little doubt a full 12-game schedule appears in peril.
If there is a major disruption in the college football season, like a delayed start, conference-only games, an unappetizing push to a spring season, or in the worst case, a cancellation, it would be the first since World War II for college football.
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, speaking on the ACC Network on Friday, said she has talked to CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock, who said it is very likely teams will not play a uniform amount of games this year if the season moves forward.
“I don’t think the overall number matters all that much,” Auerbach said. “Bill Hancock … said it’s very possible that teams that the selection committee would be analyzing will have varying amounts of games they would’ve played. What you have to do, maybe there’s a minimum threshold of games you have to play to be considered for a New Year’s Six bowl or a playoff spot.”
The end of the week did not strike a happy tone for those hoping to see an uninterrupted football season.
Michigan State elected to put its entire football team under a 14-day quarantine Friday, two days after the team suspended its workouts when a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus. Another staff member and one player had tested positive when the university announced the decision to isolate on Friday.
“That makes you think you might have an outbreak and so you want to go into quarantine,” Zach Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University in Atlanta, told Michigan Live Sports. “I think that was exactly the right move by Michigan State and I’m very impressed by that.”
The NCAA updated its guidelines July 16 regarding its return to play plan.
Among the recommendations were daily self-health checks, using masks and social distancing during training and competition, as well as away from athletics, and testing suggestions within 72 hours of competition in high-contact sports such as football.
“When we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel last spring’s championships it was because there was simply no way to conduct them safely,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement at that time. “This document lays out the advice of health care professionals as to how to resume college sports if we can achieve an environment where covid-19 rates are manageable. Today, sadly, the data point is in the wrong direction. If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic.”
Michigan State joined a list of 14 other schools which have had to pause workouts since the NCAA calendar allowed athletes to return to campus prior to the June 8 resumption of weight and agility work. Those other schools: Boise State, Houston, Idaho State, Indiana, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, Ohio State, South Alabama and Texas-El Paso.
At the University of Arkansas, Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said the Razorbacks had one active positive case among their 351 student-athletes on campus as of last Monday.
The NCAA allowed schools to increase their football activities to 20 hours per week starting Friday, including walkthroughs with the full team and a football involved. Coaches and staff members attended those walkthroughs with masks on.
Yurachek said the input he’s received from Razorback athletes is they want to play their fall sports.
“Here’s the thing that they have told me, unequivocally, ‘Don’t put us through fall camp and then pull the plug on us,’” Yurachek said on July 16. “They said, ‘Fall camp is the worst three or four weeks of football season.’ They said, ‘Please don’t put us through fall camp and then pull the plug on us. Make a decision before fall camp.’ And so, they want to play.”
Feedback from the increased level of activity during the coming week could prove pivotal on the big decisions ahead.