Notre Dame's schedule has taken a hit following the recent decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12GETTY IMAGES
The idea that there will be not be a college football season this fall is a potential scenario that Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick has been "forced to seriously ponder in recent days," according to Eric Hansen of the SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE. Swarbrick said if the "current trend lines continue -- as negative as they’ve been the past few weeks -- America is not going to return to normal." Swarbrick: "College football is just going to be a victim of that." He added if some Power 5 schools "reach decisions that they're not going to return to campus or some schools come back to campus and have issues that make it difficult for them to stay on campus, that’s going to decide the outcome of college football." Meanwhile, Swarbrick warned college sports would be diminished "in a host of ways" should there not be a football season this year. He said, "The financial consequences are likely to have ongoing ramifications, not be a one-year challenge. I think it would look very different or have the potential to be very different. I don’t know all the ways in which it will be" (SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, 7/15).
CRITICAL TIME PERIOD APPROACHING: Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby yesterday said it was too early to make a decision about the '20 football season, following the same sentiments expressed by the SEC and ACC. However, in Houston, Brent Zwerneman notes the SEC in the next couple weeks "must decide if it’s going to try a conference-games only approach ... or if it will continue to hold out hope of playing at least 11 or 12 games in the regular season" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/15). ESPN's Paul Finebaum believes we are "entering what I think is one of the most critical two-or-three weeks in the history of college football." He said, "We got to July and the numbers were spiking and the optimism for the season started to wane. And that really turned the last two weeks into where we are right now, which is an absolute and utter state of confusion. ... The last two weeks, I would say, have been remarkably solemn and sobering" (THE DAILY). For more from Finebaum, please see yesterday's issue of SBJ College.
POSITIVE OUTLOOK IS WANING: ESPN’s Heather Dinich notes there is “not much positivity at all” among college football officials. There has been a “growing amount of pessimism over the past couple of weeks, and that’s simply reflective of the trends you’re seeing with the spike in coronavirus cases.” People within the sport are “absolutely paying attention to the NBA bubble, what’s going on in the NFL and Major League Soccer” (“Golic & Wingo,” ESPN Radio, 7/15).
IS FOOTBALL A NECESSITY? In Baton Rouge, Brooks Kubena notes LSU coach Ed Orgeron yesterday told a roundtable of White House officials that the U.S. "needs football." Orgeron said, "I don't think we can take this away from our players, take this away from our state and our country. We need football. Football is the lifeblood of our country." Vice President Pence added, "It's important, not just for the student-athletes not just for schools like LSU, but it's important for America. ... We love our sports. And we all are prepared to work with athletic directors, with universities around the country to make sure that they have the support, the resources and the guidance to move forward" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 7/15). However, USA TODAY's Dan Wolken noted the SEC is "very much at risk of some drastic decisions if the current COVID-19 trajectory across the league’s footprint isn’t reversed." Few things are "more important to the culture and economy of Southern states as college football, but even the most craven college president or conference commissioner would have a hard time putting an unpaid, amateur athlete on the field for the sake of a television contract when a dangerous virus is still out of control and hospital resources in small college towns might be scarce" (USA TODAY, 7/15).
TIME TO CUT IT STRAIGHT: In Pittsburgh, Paul Zeise wrote the people who run college football "want so badly for us to believe there is some magical way they can change reality and play." Zeise: "It is either safe -- with some risk -- to play college football or it isn’t. And if it is, then let’s stop with all these nonsensical plans and play football. If it isn’t, stop wasting our time and just scrap it all together" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 7/14).
