According to reports, the NCAA is considering launching a four-month 2020 college football season to be held from February to May in 2021.
The college sports governing body is considering a whole slate of options, and while none have been adopted just yet, ESPN’s Chis Fowler reports that some are lining up behind the option of pushing the 2020 season off until February of next year.
The problem that administrators are facing is that, even as the coronavirus seems to be on the precipice of waning, that downward slide is occurring at different times in different parts of the country. The timing makes it difficult for a system that is based across the whole country to plan for a uniform comeback.
“It seems unlikely, given the fact that the virus is cresting and the peak is at different places at different times, we’re suddenly going to be back to normal to get the crowd back in stadiums everywhere by late August and early September,” Fowler told Sports Business Daily.
Fowler added that “reasonable people feel like it might be the most prudent course of action” to push football off until early next year. He also noted that there has to be a clear plan by May if college football is going to try to launch a season this year.
Then there is the problem of the official 2021 season. If the 2020 season is pushed off until the early months of 2021, will the “normal” 2021 season still start in September? And would the four short months between the delayed season and the regular 2021 season be enough time to get teams rested, and then practiced and organized?
Perhaps it would be best to write off the 2020 season, after all.
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