Dream Big: A Spring Weekend Extravaganza -- the Football Title Game and the Final Four!

With the college sports calendar facing major upheaval, this could be a monster event

Against the backdrop of the most devastating health crisis of our lifetime, I have a proposal: The biggest three-day weekend in the history of college sports.

Do I have your attention?

The sports calendar is reimagined on nearly a daily basis right now. No football will be played in the Pac-12 or Big Ten conferences this fall. The other Power Five leagues are forging ahead — for now. College basketball faces an uncertain path.

The virus will determine if and when games will be able to be safely played. But if the landscape remains treacherous in the short term and both sports wind up moving to a (hopefully) healthier spring, how about this blockbuster triple-header:

— Saturday, April 17: Final Four basketball semifinals

— Sunday, April 18: College Football Playoff championship game

— Monday, April 19: Final Four championship game

And here’s the tantalizing detail: Play them all at the same location.

Maybe the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the only facility in the nation to have hosted the Super Bowl, Olympics and Final Four, giving it a unique pedigree to pull off such an unprecedented three-day event.

This would be bigger than the Super Bowl, and would serve as a spectacular celebration for college athletics following a year of disappointment and cancellations. It's the college sports version of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones sharing a stage.

By the way, I checked and this does not conflict with any other major sporting events I could find. Not the Masters, the Indy 500 or the Derby. The weekend appears open.

Whatever hit TV revenue has taken through the loss of the 2020 NCAA tournament and changes to the fall football schedule, an event of this magnitude should make everyone’s wallet feel better.

If by some medical miracle we have a vaccine by April — or at least quick turnaround testing — maybe fans could even be part of the equation. Plenty of room in a 71,000-seat dome to socially distance at least a fraction of that total, with tickets likely to sell at obscene prices.

The 2021 CFP title game currently is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2021 in Miami. The Final Four is headed to Indianapolis on April 3 & 5. Neither of those host cities is likely to voluntarily surrender its big event, but the NCAA could entice both with promises of future high-end events.

The NCAA will probably prefer to keep both events when and where they right now. But what appears workable today may be less feasible a month or two from now.

Sure, the Big 12, SEC and ACC intend to play their college football seasons this fall. Until those games happen, it’s just scribble on a calendar. The pandemic is paying no heed and there is every reason to believe all three conferences may ultimately be forced to adjust their current plans.

If they must settle for a spring season — also the hope of the Pac-12 and the Big Ten — then the College Football Playoff would adjust accordingly.

Same goes for basketball, where currently only the Pac-12 among Power Five conferences has canceled games in November and December. If others follow, it’s easy to imagine the NCAA tournament being pushed back.

And if both sports wind up playing a spring season, why not take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime scenario to marry their biggest events on one spectacular weekend and create something we’ve never seen?

Something we hopefully will never have to see again.

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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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