The Pros and Cons of a Potential Spring College Football Season
Given the uncertainty surrounding the world that is college football at the moment, alternatives have begun to swirl as we approach what is supposed to be the beginning of the 2020 season in just over a month.
With the coronavirus pandemic still running rampant in the United States, concern for the safety of players, coaches and all others involved in the gameday experience has arisen like never before. When the pandemic caused the cancellation of the NBA, MLB, and the NCAA basketball tournament, along with other sports worldwide, the one thing that was on the side of college and professional football was precious time.
However, time is no longer on its side, and now we approach a potential decision that just a short time ago would have been unthinkable: No football season in the fall.
Beginning with the suspension of all fall sports by the Ivy League, both the Big Ten and Pac-12 followed suit to announce a change from the normally-operated season. Announcing that teams would be moving to conference-only schedules - eliminating games like Ohio State vs. Oregon and Alabama vs. USC - the hope that everything would be figured out, come the last weekend of August becomes bleaker and bleaker.
Optimism lasts no longer when it comes to business as usual for college athletics this fall. The question that has been ringing around the nation is that of:
What if College Football was played in the spring?
With that, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of moving the 2020 season into the spring of 2021.
Pros
1. The health risk of a season in the fall is too significant to be ignored.
Given the current trend of the coronavirus within the U.S., the thought to play football in the fall is ill-advised.
As of right now, the number of cases continues to be on the rise exponentially each day, and a college campus is a difficult place to limit the spread of coronavirus. Interaction with others is a daily occurrence, even when there are no classes in place, and can spell doom for athletes.
The possibilities of an entire position group or coach testing positive the night before a game is too high, and would put a damper on the team’s game plan, not to mention the travel plans.
As of now, it would be perplexing to warrant the travel of players and coaching staff to face off against various teams throughout the season, given the possible exposure to the virus the process contains.
The spring brings some of the same risks to the forefront when its time comes, but as for now, the fear of the unknown is good and allows for a better situation to be put in place for football to be played.
2. Allows for football to once again have time on its side.
As we have continued to learn throughout this process, time is valuable. It can be the healer of all things, and in this case, it is just that.
Back in March, time was the one thing that kept optimism alive within the eyes of football fans and those involved in conducting the season alike. Believing that time would help to know more about the virus and possibly put us in a position where it had become a thing of the past, medical professionals have yet to discover a treatment to stop the spread.
By postponing the season to the spring, football is able to regain time to be once again hopeful for medical advancements on the virus as well as the ability to put together the best possible procedures to ensure everyone’s health is at best interest.
3.) A better alternative than canceling the season outright.
For the fans and the universities, the cancellation of an entire football season is detrimental.
For one party, they lose an enjoyment that has captured their attention for the weekends in the fall for a large part of their lives. For the other party, the thing that hurts the worse if the season does not happen is their pockets.
The revenue that is brought in by football programs and athletics overall is too much for the NCAA to give up altogether, at least without a fight.
According to NCAA.com, all college sports combined generated a whopping $10.3 billion overall in 2018, with a large amount coming from football.
As a major cash cow for university funding, football is an essential piece of the school’s budget—not just for athletics but academics as well—for many of the top colleges. The University of Florida brought in $159,706,937 in the 2018-19 season, with over two million of that being allocated funds as stated by USAToday.
The thought that the ones atop the NCAA or even the universities would just allow the money to slip away is silly and brings the argument that if not fall, the spring is the next best option for football.
Cons
1.) The landscape of player personnel would look much different.
Imagine the collegiate level without the top-tier talent we see from around the nation on a weekly basis every year from late August to early January. That’s precisely what you would get in the situation that football gets moved to the spring.
With big-name players - such as Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State signal-caller Justin Fields, for Florida namely quarterback Kyle Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts, amongst others - presumably electing to sit out to limit the risk of wear and tear before they are selected atop the NFL Draft, college football would see its biggest attractions on the sidelines.
Not desirable in any scenario, playing the spring with what would be the collegiate equivalent of NFL preseason depth charts brings a lack of interest from fans and ultimately leads to the loss of what the purpose of the season was really for, money.
2.) Players and coaches would have to prepare for two seasons in 2021.
Despite not being an impossible feat to accomplish, the amount of strain that two seasons in one calendar year would put on a team can be rather tricky.
The risk of injuries in this situation is one that reigns supreme. The reason for moving the season to the spring, in general, is for the well-being of the players to be above all. However, if the move increases the risk for injury of players because of the physical strain that would be put on an individual’s body, the shift from fall to spring would be deemed unnecessary.
In this situation, the schools would heavily rely upon their team doctors along with strength and conditioning staff to ensure the athletes stay in peak athletic form for nearly a year straight.
It’s not impossible, just not likely.
3.) Conflicts with the timeline of the NFL Draft process.
Possibly one of the biggest obstacles for postponing college football until the spring is the conflicting schedules of not just the NFL Playoffs that span until the first weekend of February, but preparation for the NFL Draft.
As mentioned earlier, the spring brings an entirely different layout of player personnel to the table. With that, it brings opportunity for others vying for a shot at achieving their lifelong dream of reaching the pinnacle of football, which is the NFL.
Despite getting the chance to prove themselves on the field that spring, they are subjected to forgoing the draft process altogether.
In recent years, this process has been a way for NFL teams to scout and predict how an individual’s talents will translate to the next level.
The NFL Combine, in particular, has seen those on the bubble shoot up draft boards while others take tremendous falls because of their productivity, or lack of, in the events. The Combine is an opportunity for the unproven players to back up their in-game film by proving themselves in front of the 32 teams in attendance by excelling in the various tests.
Without this or at least the time to prepare for it, the projected late-rounders and undrafted free agents get little chance to showcase their skills and are hurt because of it.
