College football in need of a safe fix
Let’s give everybody in college football credit for giving it the ol’ college try, but it’s clearly time to try something else.
Arizona State became the latest program to cancel a game because of COVID-19 infections among players and coaches.
And ASU coach Herm Edwards has become the latest high-profile figure to come down with the virus that already has hit Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Florida State’s Mike Norvell.
If anybody is keeping track, and it’s not clear that anyone is, the virus has been sweeping through college football since the 2020 season kicked off, and things don’t seem to be getting better.
This weekend, eight conferences, including every Power Five conference except the Big 12, are facing postponed or canceled games.
‘Health, safety ... absolutely paramount’
At this point, there’s no way the results of this season can be considered legitimate.
Without wading through moral or economic implications, how are we supposed to crown conference champions or decide which teams should qualify for which bowls or decide on honors like the Heisman Trophy when we don’t know who’s playing from one week to the next?
And, to be clear, health and safety should be top-line concerns.
Players might be young and healthy enough to take the risk of catching and clearing an infection, but what about coaches? What about their spouses? What about members of the support staff and their family members? The virus obviously poses a risk to anyone who catches it, but the real risk has always been the potential for sick people, especially those without symptoms, to spread it.
“I will be back quicker than you can say ‘Forks up!’” Edwards said in a statement Friday.
“As I’ve stated many times over,” Edwards said later, “the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes is absolutely paramount, and we will not put them at risk.”
Edwards has his priorities in the right place, but it’s not clear it’s possible to play a season without an extremely high rate of risk.
The easy answer is “cancel the season,” but no one wants that.
Remember lockdown back in the spring? It was miserable. It triggered mental health complications and jammed up the economy like a stout nose tackle does an inside run game.
But what if conference commissioners, college presidents and athletic directors agreed to scrap the “season” in favor a series of one-off event
games?
How about a new ‘season’?
Think about it.
Quit trying to grind out game after game of practice, travel and the futile exercise of telling college football players “be safe” — all 13,000 of them. (Seriously. There are about 115 schools with Division-I college football programs and more than 100 players on each team.)
Instead, pick one game per week per conference. Bubble off the players, coaches and staffers on each team. Build it up for two weeks. Turn on the TV cameras and get after it.
Make sure everybody gets a game. Lock in on rivalries or other must-see matchups. Stretch the “season” of event games into spring ball season if necessary to make sure each school gets an even share of games.
TV ratings and interest would go through the roof, and schools would get unprecedented national exposure since fans would have fewer options.
From there, keep the bowl system, but adopt a different model.
Go with the programs that have the records for appearances.
The Cotton Bowl would be Texas vs. Texas A&M.
The Fiesta Bowl would be Ohio State vs. Penn State. (This would make ASU fans furious since the bowl was invented for the Sun Devils. But no one would notice because Sun Devils fans are ALWAYS furious — even when they WIN.)
The Peach Bowl would be Clemson vs. North Carolina State.
The Orange Bowl would be Oklahoma vs. Nebraska.
The Rose Bowl would be USC vs. Michigan. (USC would win 238-6 and Michigan fans would still whine about being robbed.)
And the Sugar Bowl would be Alabama vs. LSU.
Also, keep the games right around New Year’s Day, even if that means the “post-season” would take place at midseason.
If this plan has too many flaws, fix them or propose something else.
But at this point, with the nation in the grip of a new wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, it’s clear the traditional “season” isn’t working.
Credit to all for giving it the ol’ college try; now, let’s try something else.