Will There Be College Football This Fall? See What the Leaders Think

Commissioners, please call it in the air.

Heads, we have a college football season; tails, we don't.

If only it were that easy.

Fewer than fourth months before the first games are scheduled to kick off, the top administrators from 10 conferences plus the Notre Dame athletic director are scrambling to put together contingency plans in the face of a global pandemic that threatens the upcoming season, not to mention everyone's well-being.

The questions before them range from playing in empty stadiums to playing condensed regional schedules. To playing in delayed fashion. To playing next spring. To not playing at all.

As the country slowly re-opens, these people in charge say they're optimistic we will have college football. They see signs of hope, of a country cautiously regrouping and with football still having a chance.

In what form that will be and when, they can't rightly spell out.

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger contacted these 10 commissioners and the Irish AD Jack Swarbrick, all entrusted with plotting out the best courses of action, and asked them for their thoughts and opinions.

The commissioners, of course, will proceed only after receiving firm guidance from their university presidents and political leaders. Read SI's comprehensive story here.

In Seattle, the University of Washington, unlike most schools, has played college football continuously for 127 seasons without interruption. This health crisis threatens that streak in ways that international conflict and the Great Depression could not.

The Huskies competed in just two games in 1918 and only five in 1943 -- at the peak of both world wars -- but sent teams onto the field nonetheless. As fighting raged overseas, the school found ways to play football and correspondingly boost public morale.

With these crippling virus concerns, the UW still might have a distinct advantage at home because of its lakeside location that almost no one else can match, no matter what happens.

If Husky fans can't enter the stadium on game day, imagine them occupying hundreds, maybe thousands, of boats on Lake Washington just outside the open end of the stadium.

Watching the action on TVs, they could make their presence felt, sounding horns in unison to celebrate the team's intermittent successes.

Only Tennessee, with Neyland Stadium bordering the Tennessee River, and Baylor, with McLane Stadium perched on the shoreline of the Brazos River, can offer similar stadium access and support.

Meantime, the most pressing questions about college football revolve around keeping everyone safe, both on and off the field, as conference officials try to figure out next steps. What happens, for example, to teams if a player tests positive?

Pac-12 football coaches, speaking in groups on conference calls this week, want at least a six-week lead time in training and preparation before sending players into games.

At the same time, California and Oregon political leaders have suggested they might limit crowd sizes and school openings well into the fall, which could deny those universities from holding football games.

In World War II, the same fragmented scenarios played out. Who would play and who wouldn't?

Washington was not one of them on the sidelines.

We explain this in a coming story.