A season without College Football? Coronavirus could impact season, coaches and administrators say
While this sport isn’t in season, some prominent college football head coaches and athletic directors are starting to get paranoid that the college football season is in serious danger if the coronavirus curve isn’t flattened by the summer.
This potential reality has increased over time with more cases popping up around the country. A season without college football would be damaging not only for fans, players, and coaches but there’s also a heavy financial part that many teams depend on as they help fund their respective athletic Departments.
In an interview with Scott Van Pelt on ESPN last night, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly put together a cut off date of July 1 for summer workouts to begin.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish begin their season a week early on Aug. 29 vs. Navy in Dublin, Ireland. Other coaches around the country are optimistic, however they truly understand the reality of the situation.
“My feeling is I’m planning on us possibly having some summer work,” North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said to the Raleigh News and Observer.
“I’m planning on all of our guys coming back if not the first session of summer school, the second session, and I’m planning on us starting a regular preseason and playing all of our games. That’s the mindset I’ve got right now. Obviously I have no one in a position of power outside of our world here at the university. That is totally an opinion of mine. But that’s what I’m telling our coaches to prepare for.”
Typically fall camps begin near the end of July to the beginning of August. Without a true spring session, the summer session has now become huge for teams to get players, new and returning acclimated, in shape and on the same page before the 2020 season begins.
Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall is open to a modified schedule, which would be unprecedented if that step was taken.
“We’re preparing exactly with that model in place,” Mendenhall said during a videoconference with reporters. “We’re acting as if, and we’re making preparations as if, we won’t have spring practice. We possibly won’t have players here for summer school, any session, and possibly we won’t have the opportunity for anything other than fall camp to begin.
“Knowing that fall camp timing might even be pushed back, meaning that there certainly could be a chance that it’s not even be a full schedule played this year -- if football is played, period.”
While all the pageantry and excitement of college football could be away for a much longer time than anticipated, the financial impact is a much scarier reality for some athletic departments according to Central Florida AD Danny White.
“Financially, it would be devastating. … I don’t know what would happen or how it would play out if we didn’t play football this fall,” White said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 2:45 PM.
