How Major League Baseball's CoVID Crisis Could Impact College Football
Monday morning brought a massive curveball to the Major League Baseball season when at least 14 members of the Miami Marlins organization tested positive for CoVID-19. The Marlins were in Philadelphia to open the season this past weekend, and after the news broke, the Yankees and Phillies series scheduled to begin tonight won't begin on time.
In addition, the Marlins have not traveled home to play their home opener against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.
The news is crushing for a sport that took an exceptionally long time to begin their 2020 season. Major League Baseball and the Players Union had a rather public, ugly debate on compensation and safety measures in order to begin the season. Even though stadiums are empty (except for cardboard cut-outs of some fans), the sports-starved American public reportedly watched opening games this weekend in record numbers.
Perhaps even more eyes are now on Major League Baseball as the NFL and NCAA have not yet returned to action. Thus far, the NBA and MLS "bubbles" have worked well and those sports' return to action have gotten off the a good start. Both leagues have reported zero positive cases thus far. The National Women's Soccer League was the first American professional league to return in the pandemic - they just concluded a successful month-long season in their "bubble" out in Utah with Houston Dash winning their first league title on Sunday.
But the NCAA is being presented with a different challenge. It doesn't seem possible to keep college football teams in a "bubble". Most university presidents and athletic directors that have spoken publicly on the matter say that students need to return to campus in order for sports to move forward with their seasons. Many schools haven't yet committed to in-person classes yet and the beginning of the college football season is now just over a month away.
It's especially notable because NCAA leaders have said they would be monitoring the return of professional sports as they make their decisions on the safety of returning to action. Right now, the model that seem to be working would be awfully difficult to pull off at the collegiate model.
Should college football push the season back? That's certainly one option. Although Oklahoma announced on Saturday it would play it's season-opener with Missouri State a week earlier than originally scheduled.
At this point, fans are still anxiously waiting to hear what conference commissioners and individual schools decide. Remember, even if the NCAA chooses to cancel fall sports championships, they don't have the authority to cancel the regular season or the College Football Playoff because they don't own the rights to that property. It's owned by the schools and the conferences. The Big Ten went to a conference-only slate of games for this year, but they have not yet released a football schedule.
Time is running out and NCAA decision-makers know that they don't have much longer before they have to finalize plans for the upcoming season. Whether or not the latest development in Major League Baseball will affect the NCAA remains to be seen ... but it definitely isn't good news to begin the week.
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