Hopes Dashed: It Seems Inevitable a Cancellation is Coming
Late Sunday evening Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger collaborated on an article where sources from inside the Power Five conferences have indicated to them that the 2020 college football season is likely to be canceled sometime this week.
"High-level conference meetings are being planned for this week across the college football landscape with the expected resolution of postponing fall sports until 2021, multiple sources have told Sports Illustrated," wrote the pair in the article.
Rumors began circulating last week that this move was in the making, but now that it is growing closer, the reality is setting in for fans and players alike.
"It's gotten to a critical stage," one conference commissioner told Sports Illustrated Sunday, after a conference call between the heads of the Power 5 conferences. "I think all of us will be meeting with our boards in the coming days. We have work to do that is no fun."
In recent days, multiple players from around the college football world, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence have joined the fight for their season by using the hashtag #WeWantToPlay while taking to social media to share their feelings.
"Dominoes started falling in earnest Saturday when the Mid-American Conference postponed fall sports. The Big Ten followed with an announcement that it was pausing its scheduled progression to full-pads football practices. A well-placed source told SI Saturday, "I think by the end of the week the fall sports will be postponed in all conferences," according to the article.
While the Southeastern Conference has seemed poised to move forward regardless, this report indicates that might no longer be the case, and that they too are ready to make a move to cancel things.
We as a collective had hoped for the season to be played, and we as that same collective might even need that season to be played if for nothing more than something to change the negative narratives we've been living under for months.
That seems less likely now, but that doesn't change anything for the better.
It's easy to understand the fears and trepidation felt by conference, and university leaders, but at the same time, it's also easy to understand why players like Lawrence and others now want their voices heard.
Not one likes where we stand on this currently. Regardless of what happens, the risks remain for all of us in life at this time. No one knows the outcome of playing a season, or of what might occur in canceling it.
"In the next 72 hours, college football is going to come to a complete stop," one industry source said, according to Forde and Dellenger.
It might just take a large slice of hope with it.
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