’Canes, ACC wanting to play
Neither is being swayed by postponement of Big Ten, Pac-12 seasons
As the list of college football conferences holding off on a fall season grows with the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponements to the spring on Tuesday afternoon, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Atlantic Coast Conference, in which the Miami Hurricanes play, would follow with a similar measure.
“We will continue to follow our process that has been in place for months and has served us well,” the ACC said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.”
The ACC said it will base decisions on advice from its Medical Advisory Group, which put together a list of medical and testing protocols ahead of unveiling its recently revised fall schedule.
“I don’t really worry about Big Ten,” said UM running back Cam’Ron Harris following Monday night’s practice, as reports had already been swirling about the move. “I’m just worried about ACC, our conference. We’re ready to play, and we don’t worry about what’s on the outside.”
Florida State president John Thrasher backed up the idea of playing the fall season with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at FSU on Tuesday.
Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz tweeted his desire for the season to go on as scheduled following Monday night’s practice.
“Impressed by our guys ability
to block out the noise and bring the energy for Practice 4. These men want to play,” Diaz wrote, followed by #WeWantToPlay and #WeWantToCoach hashtags.
With concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus diminishing how many schools and conferences are participating in the fall, what could a college football season look like with only remnants of the Football Bowl Subdivision playing?
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Big Ten, Pac-12, Mid-American Conference and Mountain West Conference are out for the fall. That leaves six FBS conferences still planning to play — three of the Power 5 and three Group of 5 conferences.
Within the Group of 5 conferences, Old Dominion of Conference USA and Connecticut of the American Athletic Conference have individually bowed out, as did independent UMass.
Other Power 5 conferences have laid out schedule plans for the season, like the ACC’s 10-plus-1 schedule where member schools are slated to play 10 conference games and one non-conference opponent. A large unknown, however, remains in what will be done in the postseason.
Miami athletic director Blake James called it an “aspirational” schedule, but should teams make it through the regular season and ensuing conference championship games, say, without two Power 5 conferences participating, would the NCAA still try to hold a College Football Playoff?
The four-team tournament has crowned a national champion every postseason since 2014. If it still goes on without the Big Ten and Pac-12, would that open up an opportunity for a Group of 5 team to claim a spot with an undefeated season? The playoff system has been criticized for not giving an unbeaten school in one of those leagues, like UCF of the AAC in 2017, a chance to fight for a national title against the big boys.
“It’s too soon to say,” College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock told Sports Illustrated of the impact of the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponing their football seasons on Tuesday. “We are awaiting guidance from the CFP board and management committee.”
The Southeastern Conference is generally regarded as the toughest conference year in and year out and already has had seasons where two of its member programs earned College Football Playoff bids. Without two Power 5 conferences playing, in a scenario where it’s SEC, ACC and Big 12, that would almost assure another season in which two SEC teams make the playoff.
What about rankings? Without the Big Ten and Pac-12, that eliminates 26 Power 5 programs. Would the 38 remaining Power 5 schools and a few top Group of 5 programs still be vying for a top-25 ranking with .500 teams making appearances in the 20s?
With the Big Ten’s announcement on Tuesday, not every Big Ten school was on board. Coaches in the conference have backed up players that began a Sunday night #WeWantToPlay movement.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh laid out what he’s seen with COVID-19 cases within his team decreasing the longer his players have been back on campus working out and practicing. Ohio State coach Ryan Day tweeted “Swinging as hard as we possibly can right now for these players!! This isn’t over!” on Monday.
Nebraska coach Scott Frost is committed to playing — no matter what — and that he was “prepared to look at any and all options,” including playing outside the Big Ten. “Our University is committed to playing no matter what, no matter what that looks like and how that looks. We want to play no matter who it is or where it is. We certainly hope it’s in the Big Ten. If it isn’t, I think we’re prepared to look for other options,” said Frost.
Could that mean joining another conference for a year if it means playing games this fall? Would other schools follow suit if it’s possible under NCAA rules? Notre Dame, a football independent, is playing in the ACC this season, but the Fighting Irish are also ACC members in other sports.
In the ACC, Louisville coach Scott Satterfield said he was told the conference is moving forward with its season plans regardless of what other conferences do, according to the Louisville CourierJournal on Monday.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney also is pushing for the season to be played on time. “We’ve had one [positive test] since early July, and we’ve been together every day and practicing. If we cancel college football the virus isn’t going to go away. If you told me that if we canceled football nobody would get the virus, I’d be the first person to sign up. But that’s not reality. The virus isn’t going away. It’s going to still be here in the spring.”