SBJ College: Sentiment Shifting On Fall Football

It was just more than two months ago -- March 12 -- that the sports world turned upside down. We’ve had 10 Thursdays come and go since that day when March Madness was canceled. Seems like it’s been a lot longer.

Now, let’s see what’s cooking on campus.

FOOTBALL IN THE FALL, EVEN IF CAMPUS IS CLOSED?

• College officials are warming to the idea of playing football this fall -- even if the rest of the student body isn’t on campus. That marks a noteworthy change from the previous two months of quarantine. This week, I brought that issue up to a well-connected Power 5 AD. “That sentiment is changing,” the AD said of playing football whether campus has reopened or not. Sentiment is shifting based on three main reasons:
  
  
  • Revenue, of course. Football accounts for up to 80% of the revenue for an FBS athletic department, so even a shortened season would be better than nothing.
  • There’s a strong desire for a return to normalcy, and sports can lead the way.
  • We know more now than we did 4-6 weeks ago.
    
    
• NCAA President Mark Emmert hinted at that change in attitude when he told ESPN that the governing body would not get in the way of conferences making their own decisions about football. The California State University announcement that it would conduct fall classes online added to that momentum. Importantly, the decision did not shut down football for Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State -- CSU schools that play in the Mountain West (public universities in the Pac-12 like UCLA and Cal are not part of the CSU system). In fact, SDSU doubled down on its plan to bring fall athletes back to campus July 7.
  
  
• Many P5 universities already have stated their intent to reopen with in-person classes this fall. We’re more than three months away from the start of college football season, so a lot will change. But even if campuses don’t reopen, there’s momentum behind the idea of playing anyway. Weight rooms and locker rooms will need to be modified to accommodate distancing. Schedules might become more regionalized to aid cost cutting. But there’s a sense it will be easier to keep the players safe if colleges don’t reopen -- they will be sequestered from the rest of the student body.
  
  
• Schools that don’t reopen, but play football anyway, will have to answer two questions:
  
  
  • How can you tell students that it’s not safe to be on campus, but tell the athletes that they’re safe on campus?
  • What happens when an athlete tests positive for COVID-19? The response to both will be critical for any university.

TRAVELS TRENDS LIKELY CHANGING ACROSS COLLEGE SPORTS

• Every athletic department in the country is evaluating its cost-cutting options and many of them start with travel. I asked John Anthony, founder & CEO of Anthony Travel, which manages travel for close to 90 schools, what trends he’s seeing.
  
  
• Across college athletics:
  
  
  • Reduced travel parties across all sports.
  • More regional competition for non-conference games, especially in Olympic sports.
  • Negotiating out of longer trips for this upcoming season and pushing back a season or two.
  • More teams traveling by bus over commercial or charter air. Schools are looking at a threshold of 400 miles to dictate travel by ground or flight, similar to the policy employed by the NCAA for tournament travel.
  • Elimination of football teams staying in a hotel the night before a home game.
  • Travel out and back the same day for day games.
    
    
• Hotel trends:
  
  
  • Some schools are not signing hotel contracts until July.
  • Some schools are lowering their cap on hotel rates.
  • Breakfast: hotels may not be allowed to serve a public buffet upon reopening, depending on local health policies.
  • Schools are asking how social distancing, cleaning and group numbers impact check-in and elevators.
    
    
• Air travel trends:
  
  
  • Charter air is still the choice for basketball and football programs, but there is a deeper review of charter options vs. staying with the same carrier they have used year after year. 
  • Olympic sports are evaluating where they typically will charter and considering commercial air costs.
  • Anthony: “We don’t necessarily see P5 football programs flying commercial, but potentially more teams would bus.” For a typical away game that's a 4-5 hour drive, programs could save approximately $100,000 if they bus versus taking a charter flight.

SPEED READS

• Akron is the latest FBS-level program to eliminate a sports program during the pandemic. The school will cut men's golf, women's tennis and men's cross country, per the Akron Beacon Journal. That will save $4.4 million, which "represents 23% of the athletics department’s budget." Akron joins Old Dominion (wrestling), Cincinnati (men's soccer) and FIU (men's indoor track & field) in eliminating programs during the shutdown.
  
  
• Scott Stricklin wants pro sports teams and leagues to know that the Gainesville campus is open for business. The Florida AD told Gov. Ron DeSantis that UF boasts “world class health care facilities, an iconic football stadium, a state-of-the-art basketball arena and a brand-new baseball ballpark within two hours of cities with professional franchises.” Specifically looking at baseball, the Gators were just starting the final season at Alfred A. McKethan Stadium, and the new $65 million ballpark sounds ready to go.
  
  
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes the damage caused by the pandemic can be "given credit for the revival of a crosstown basketball series" in Atlanta, as Georgia Tech and Georgia State will play a three-game series starting with the 2020-21 season. GT coach Josh Pastner said the series is a "consequence of the increased fiscal challenges expected from the pandemic." For Tech, this may "only be the first product of its adjusted scheduling philosophy." Pastner said that he would be "open to similar agreements with in-state Division I opponents Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern or Mercer."
  
  
• Cool scene on the most-recent episode of "Vocal Distancing" from College Sports Now, as all 14 SEC football radio play-by-play announcers were on a video chat. Mississippi State's Neil Price played host. Alabama's Eli Gold jokingly called the session a "rogue's gallery," while Arkansas' Chuck Barrett was impressed at the number of beards being grown during the shutdown.

top row: Eli Gold (Bama); Neil Price (Mississippi State); Bob Kesling (Tennessee); Andrew Monaco (Texas A&M). 2nd row: David Kellum (Ole Miss); Andy Murcham (Auburn); Mick Hubert (Florida); Chris Blair (LSU). 3rd row: Tom Leach (Kentucky); Scott Howard (Georgia); Chuck Barrett (Arkansas); Michael Kelly (Missouri). Bottom row: Todd Ellis (South Carolina); Joe Fisher (Vanderbilt)

THROWBACK THURSDAY

• It was three years ago this week that IMG College dropped the CLC name and replaced it with IMG College Licensing. It was an understandable move to get all of the businesses under the IMG College banner, but it never took. Years later, everyone in collegiate sports business still called it CLC, short for Collegiate Licensing Co. The pioneering business that Bill Battle founded in 1981 has endured. Learfield brought the CLC name back after the December 2018 merger with IMG College.

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Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media. Also check out SBJ Unpacks on week nights, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).