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Outlook for College Football Making Me Nervous, You Should Be Too

It's not something we want to think about or write, but it's a growing possibility that football doesn't survive the pandemic for a 2020 season.
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Our world in 2020 could best be described as bleak, and that might be an understatement for many among us.  

Since the worldwide coronavirus pandemic took hold of our nation, forcing the closures of schools, businesses, sporting events, concerts, movie theaters, and more,  people have suffered in different ways. Still, few have gotten through the last four and a half months unaffected. 

Just when things looked to be turning for the better, and the hope of the beginning of football season from high school to college and the pros, now we must face the harsh reality that those seasons might not happen. 

I know that not everyone is a football fan and won't feel the impact of its cancellation-should that occur-  but if football is canceled, then so too will be those other activities we lost last time. 

If you think I'm crazy in saying these things, I'm not alone. 

Tony Barnhart of the Sports Illustrated site TMG Sports is nervous too.  

"On June 26 in this space I wrote that I was starting to get a little nervous over the number positive tests among players who had returned to campus. But I still thought we were going to play.

Today, for the first time, I’m genuinely concerned that we’re not going to be able to play college football in 2020.

Sure hope I’m wrong."

Since May, Barnhart has been writing in that same forum his feelings that a college football season would happen. Knowing that and today to have him say he's nervous confirmed everything I have been seeing, and thinking for the past week. The tightening of restrictions as cases have grown higher is not suitable for anyone.  

Reports of scores of infected college football players testing positive upon their return to campuses have forced administrators at several programs to suspend voluntary workouts.  

The Ivy League just this week suspended their seasons in all sports for the remainder of 2020. However, they intend to look at starting basketball in January of 2021, and possibly holding some type of shortened spring football season after.    

We wrote here a few days ago that two administrators from the University of Southern California had sent emails to students urging them to not move into residences at or near campus because of the possibility that school would not reopen for in-person classes. 

I'm not an epidemiologist or any type of doctor, and I don't have any answers, only questions, and those questions lead to a place none of us want to be in a nation without football this fall.