Hope For Fall Football A Fantasy?

And a spring season hardly looks fulfilling

Oklahoma State has a plan for football in the fall.

But as everything these days, it’s fluid. And that’s a problem, as with each passing day, the plan appears to be leaking away hope.

Almost daily, someone asks me if there’s going to be a football season.

My response: That’s the plan, until it’s not the plan.

And the same goes for in-person classes. Will students be on campus come mid-August, crowding hallways and elevators and stairwells – and yes, I’ll say it – the bars?

That’s the plan, until it’s not the plan.

And that’s the way it has to be, with OSU and every university so needing students on campus, and football teams on the field, to avoid crippling financial concerns.

Yet there’s little good news regarding on the coronavirus that continues to steal so many of the things that bring joy to our lives. If anything, the news gets worse, including mounting evidence suggesting that COVID-19 is airborne, which would explain the easy transmission and the spike in cases nationally now that we’ve tried to return to some form of normalcy.

Scientists are urging key health agencies, including the World Health Organization, to support the likelihood of this, with acknowledgment slow to come.

The implications of the virus being airborne are significant, requiring greater protections and procedures to limit the spread, primarily in confined spaces and/or rooms with poor ventilation.

Meanwhile, the spikes continue, particularly in areas of the country where the temperature is rising and people are retreating indoors to find air conditioning relief. Dining and drinking and mixing outdoors isn’t so fun in July.

What does all this mean for school, and sports in the fall?

It can’t be good.

Already, the Ivy League has postponed fall sports. The Pac-12 and Big Ten have already canceled the football non-conference portions of their schedules. And it sure feels like more cancelations are coming, with time suddenly no longer on our side.

Big 12 Media Days are set for next week – virtually, of course. Sometime, and presumably soon, players will have to start practicing for the season, if there’s going to be a season, at least one in the fall.

And let’s not even talk about a spring season as a reasonable alternative. Who will be left to play, with the best players from every team sure to sit out and instead focus on the NFL Draft?

A weekend story in The Athletic quoted agents, who generally start recruiting prospective clients in the summer before their final seasons, talking about college players who may not wait to make a call on whether to play or not.

“They’re gonna bail. I mean, I’m recruiting some high-end kids,” an agent told The Athletic’s Ben Standig. “I talked to probably four of them last night, and they all echoed the same thing. Like, they’re done. This is over.”

What would that mean for OSU? You don’t need me to run through a checklist of guys who may shift their attention to preparing for the NFL, and that extends to pretty much anyone who sees himself as a NFL prospect. And trust me, that group is always larger than it should be.

So yeah, for OSU, that scenario delivers disaster ahead of a season that once seemed to offer something special.

For now, continue to hold out hope.

For a rededication to safer precautions. For a breakthrough in the search for a vaccine.

For school and football in the fall.

That’s the plan.

Until it’s not the plan.