College Football 2020 May Get Weird With Fewer Teams, Transfer Possibilities

A strange college football season could get much stranger.

Imagine Alabama facing Clemson for the 2020 national championship a week before Cal and Stanford begin preseason training camp. And try to imagine a current USC player becoming the MVP of that Alabama-Clemson national title game.

It's a lot ot wrap your head around, but odd scenarios are dancing in the heads of college football fans and adminsters.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten both announced Tuesday that no football will played in their conferences this fall, but they will try to play football in the spring.

However, the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference still seem intent on trying to play football this fall.

Medical experts have given the SEC a vritual green light to proceed with its fall football plays, according to CBS Sports.

SEC commissioner @GregSankey on @dpshow: "Our medical advisory group has said, ‘Yes, we can continue to go forward.’ Should that advice change, that would certainly be a stopping point."
— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) August 11, 2020

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN that players in his conference are already working out in pads and helmets and that the SEC will not necessarily follow the lead of the Pac-12 and Big Ten.

"The decisions of others are information points for us," he said, "but not determinative for us," Sankey told ESPN.

On the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday he suggested it was unlikely that the SEC would go ahead with fall football if it was the only major conferene doing so.

But what if the ACC would join the SEC in playing fall ball?

The chair of the ACC medical advisory board advisory board believes a fall season could be played safely, according to an ESPN.com report. And the report goes on to say the expert's belief "is one of the biggest reasons the league remains on course to start the season in September."

Statement from the ACC: pic.twitter.com/9lBY5h8jNy
— The ACC (@theACC) August 11, 2020

An ACC official told CBS Sports it "absolutely" plans to go forward with fall football at this point.

So the SEC could play its conference-only schedule that ends with a conference title game, and its champion could face the winner of the ACC, which plans an 11-game schedule with just one nonconference game plus a conference title game.

Teams from the SEC and ACC have met in the past five national championship games, so what's the difference if we just eliminate the other three Power 5 conferences from the start? Nothing is lost, and it makes things a lot simpler. What's the problem?

Well, the problem is that ACC officials have said their conference would play fall football only if a majority of the Power 5 conferences play in the fall. That would leave it up to the Big 12 to cast the deciding vote, and no one seems certain what the Big 12 will do regarding fall football.

It puts a lot of pressure on Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and the 10 Big 12 university presidents, who will be hearing it from both sides since it holds the key to the viability of college football this fall, according to CBS Sports.

The Big 12 leaders held a meeting Tuesday night, and Yahoo reported the conference is still planning to play football in the fall. That increases the likelihood that we will see big-time college football teams compete in the fall -- even if it involves only three Power 5 conferences.

But you can see why the SEC and ACC want to forge ahead. Let's be honest. The pressure to play college football in the fall is a lot greater in the Southeast, where college football is king, than it is out here on the West Coast.

Florida has serious COVID-19 issues, but Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is full speed ahead when it comes to having college football in his state:

If college football conferences get shut down, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) suggests he would "welcome their players to the state of Florida." pic.twitter.com/B1j2YgjfMJ
— The Recount (@therecount) August 11, 2020

And we know it's a political issue when our president presents his point of view:

Play College Football!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020

But what about the players in the Pac-12 and Big Ten who feel left out of the fall competition, especially if they want to prove themselves to NFL scouts?

Theoretically, players on Pac-12 and Big Ten teams could transfer to schools in the ACC or SEC if those conferences play in the fall. When asked about that possibility, Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson said Tuesday, "To the extent that others think there is an opportunity to essentially come recruit our players, then we would say, 'Hey, have at it.' We're not going to change what is important to us."

The transferring players would need a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately, and that would put the NCAA in a tough spot. The NCAA wants to to seem sympathetic to the needs and desires of its athletes who are put in this difficult situation through no fault of their own, but to let athletes play in another conference within days of a transfer certainly might not sit well in the public eye.

The school receiving the transfer would need to have a scholarship and roster spot available for the incoming player, and at this stage of the summer that might be a problem -- one a powerful football school could probably solve, though

*** Here was Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton's response to a question about athletes potentially transferring:

But who would blame a player with NFL aspirations wanting to showcase his talents for the pros, a chance he might not get if his school's football season begins in the spring if at all?

The 2021 NFL Draft is scheduled for April 29 through May 1, but the NFL can delay its draft until June 3 if it needs to. You would think the NFL would move its draft if it suited its purposes, but nothing is certain with the NFL.

Of course, there are other issues, like the fact that a spring college football season would be followed closely by a 2021 football season, or the communication coming out of Nebraska that it wants to play games in the fall despite the Big Ten's decision.

We'll leave those controversies for another day.

Cover photo by Butch Dill - USA TODAY Sports

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