Michigan Football Chatter: Will There Be A CFB Season?
COVID-19 has shaken the country to its core and sports is obviously a massive part of that. There are much bigger issues involved, but people across the nation are praying that sports will return.
The NBA is back. Baseball begins its shortened season today. The NHL is coming back as well.
But football? People are really worried about the return of the country's favorite sport.
A source very close to the Michigan program that has communicated directly with the coaching staff says U-M's coaches are definitely feeling the pressure as the summer marches on.
"They're just praying they play," our source said. "It's just looking worse each day."
His worry isn't blind. So many dominoes have started to fall and it all seems to be leading up to a complete cancellation.
"I am basing it on what’s going on in society," he said. "No high school football in California, but it's not exactly up to them. Smaller conferences are already cancelling seasons, numbers are spiking in the south and teams are cancelling summer workouts due to outbreaks."
The coaches feel like they can play and keep things under control, but it's not exactly up to them.
"The coaches can figure it out on the football side, but if a governor or school president or congressman or woman says, 'My state can’t do this,' then it’s over.
"Everyone is waiting for someone else to decide so they don’t lose their fan base or popularity with their people."
It really is a bummer all the way around. Michigan's season opener against Washington figured to be one of the more intriguing early-season matchups in college football. Now, that game, along with non-conference contests against Ball State and Arkansas State, are cancelled.
"The coaches were really excited about that Washington game," our source said. "It was a great venue against a great opponent and now it's just gone."
Everyone is doing everything they can to make football happen but it might not matter. The virus is marching on and numbers are still at an alarming level. Because of that, the worries may become reality.
The flip side of those concerns is that the Big Ten has taken measures to ensure some level of a football season. Two weeks ago the conference announced a move to league-only games, a proclamation soon followed by the Pac 12 but met with hostility from leaders in the SEC, ACC and Big 12 that felt there should have been a uniformed decision.
So why did the Big Ten act so hastily? To create its best chance at football.
"There's not this brazen attitude you can find elsewhere of 'We're going to play no matter what,'" a U-M athletic department official said. "There was considerable push from coaches and athletic directors to 'get on the same page' under direction from one voice - Big Ten HQ.
"Just four weeks ago, it was every school for itself, trying to decide unilaterally if we should play fall sports and that just wasn't working. We needed leadership. We needed guidance, and most of all, we needed protocols.
"We feel, at Michigan, we have the best medical infrastructure in place in the conference, and we wanted to share that across the conference and get set standards in place so that if our team is playing at Minnesota or Wisconsin is coming to us, we know that their facilities, their staff and their players have gone through the same rigorous process that our team has to be on the field.
"That wasn't happening, and our coaches were imploring the Big Ten commissioner's office to take charge. Finally that happened."
While Michigan can be known for its arrogance, one member of the advising committee on COVID-19 recently shared that if every school in the country followed the protocols established at U-M, there would be universal football played this year.
"It's a trickle-down effect," this person said. "We have leading experts in medicine and science creating the procedures, then we have an administration that is on-board with 100% of it, and then we have coaches, trainers and support staff that are following guidelines to a T.
"There is no cheating. Our football players aren't getting together in secret. Everyone understands the importance of being extra diligent, wearing masks, wiping down surfaces, staying six feet apart, washing hands. Our coaches want a season and our players want a season and so they're being very strict."
As for what that season will look like ... according to the Mercury News, the Pac 10 will introduce a 10th conference game, will start its season Sept. 19 (in what should be Week 3), has multiple possible dates for a Pac 12 Championship and has byes built into the season for flexible scheduling.
The Big Ten is also expected to announce a 10th game to league play (for Michigan this will mean picking up a West Division foe, likely on the road, and quite possibly Iowa or Nebraska as TV executives want as many marquee big-name matchups as possible).
In fact, a television partner of the Big Ten's recently told Wolverine Digest they wanted the 42 non-conference games cancelled by the Big Ten replaced with 42 more league games. The conference office pushed back on that but is seeking to add more appealing matchups as the 10th game.
What does that mean? Ohio State doesn't get West Division competitor Purdue to fill its 10th spot but likely gets Wisconsin. Penn State likely picks up Minnesota instead of Illinois. And Michigan doesn't get Northwestern but the Cornhuskers or Hawkeyes.
Considering that the Big Ten will rely almost exclusively on its media rights this football season, the television partners get a little more say than usual. Which is why, as we mentioned previously, THE Game could be moved up to September or October from its normal late November slot.
"If for some reason the seasons get delayed or outright cancelled after 4-6 games, and the Michigan-Ohio State game is left dangling unplayed ... that would be a disaster," a TV executive shared. "It's the highest-rated game every year for the conference. It outdraws the Big Ten Championship. You can usually take the second and third highest games of the season, add them together, and you still don't have the numbers of the Michigan-Ohio State game.
"So what's truly sacrilegious - that THE Game gets played in Week 4 or that it never gets played at all?"
In that vein, don't be surprised if Michigan's matchups with Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State all occur in the first four or five weeks of the season.
