Uncertainty Clouds College Football Season

The return to campus came just as cases spiked around the country

Last month, college football players began returning to campus, and the sport’s return on scheduled seemed likely.

Now, the landscape has shifted dramatically. Coronavirus infections have spiked around the country, including on some of the teams that have been working out on campus. The Ivy League has announced it will move its season to the spring, and the possibility that the power conferences will follow suit is a real one.

“We’re definitely heading the wrong way,” physician Doug Aukerman told SI.com’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger.

NCAA leaders have indicated that the deadline to decide on the season’s fate is the first week in August. Options, short of starting on time, can be summarized as (1) delaying the season deeper into the fall, with a cut-off point of mid-October; (2) playing an abbreviated season of only conference games that would likely begin later than Labor Day; and (3) move the season to the spring.

In order to start on time or close to it, officials told SI.com that cases would need to at the very least, plateau around the nation, something that’s not happening in 41 of the 50 states at the moment.

“The challenges,” one Power Five A.D. said, “are mounting.”

“Two or three weeks ago, I was cautiously optimistic that if things kept going well, we’d be able to start on time and play a full season,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “But things haven’t gone as well.”

And, of course, the longer colleges go without a football season, the more dire their budget situation becomes. Athletics programs depend heavily on revenue from college football to fund other sports on campus. Budgets have already been tightened due to the loss of revenue from the pandemic, which shut down March Madness and spring sports.

“We're so dependent on football revenue,” says one Power 5 athletic director, “if we don't have a season we're all in trouble.”