• 7 months ago
How will COVID-19 affect this year's CFB season?
Transcript
00:00 We know there are no sports for now, but what about the fall, particularly college football?
00:05 For more on that, I'm joined by our senior writer, Pat Forty.
00:08 Pat, I know you had discussions with some administrators.
00:11 Are they prepared for a doomsday scenario?
00:14 Well, I think a lot of people are preparing for all kinds of scenarios in college sports where college football is involved.
00:21 Yes, there are people who are looking ahead at the worst case, which is no college football season.
00:26 And what a debacle that would be from an economic standpoint, in addition to the fact that fans just love the sport.
00:32 They are looking at an abbreviated season.
00:35 They're looking at a later season, an earlier season.
00:38 There's been all kinds of conjecture and speculation.
00:41 And I've had a lot of athletic directors who have said that they are, you know,
00:45 they have staff specifically assigned to start looking at various contingencies with fans, without fans,
00:51 losses of revenue of X percent, 100 percent and somewhere in between.
00:56 So there's a lot of gray area and a lot of contingencies being laid out.
01:00 What are the most important questions they need answered in order to plan properly?
01:06 Well, you know, first and foremost, they need, you know, a green light from health professionals, you know,
01:11 and state officials, local officials to say it's OK to have large gatherings again.
01:16 And I think we're quite a ways away from having that, obviously.
01:19 Now, we've got several months to play with before football season.
01:22 But, you know, you can't all of a sudden just say we're going to have 100000 people in a stadium unless a lot of other things fall in place in terms of nationwide health.
01:31 Secondly, though, will campuses even be open?
01:35 You know, we've seen a lot of schools shut down for summer school already and declare there will be no on campus classes.
01:41 If there's no students on campus first class stands to reason there's not going to be students on campus practicing football in July and in August.
01:49 So that's domino has to fall first, I think, before we get to a football season.
01:54 Then, you know, what what level of interaction between players?
01:59 You know, it's a very physical sport. It's a hands on sport, obviously.
02:03 Will there be testing for them on a daily basis?
02:06 Just so many things, Robin, that we just don't know at this point, but they're trying to plan for.
02:10 Now, would you expect there? I know you don't know either, but having talked to all these administrators, would you expect there to be a college football season?
02:18 I do expect there to be a season. You know how long it is, when it starts.
02:22 Those are probably the two biggest unknowns. My colleague and I, Ross Dellinger, we've we've talked to probably two dozen people either in the sport or close to the sport.
02:31 You know, I think that right now the odds of starting on Labor Day weekend or the week earlier, actually, is which is when things are scheduled to happen.
02:39 There's, I believe, seven games on August 29th, including Notre Dame and Navy.
02:43 If that's going to go on as normal, doubtful. Could they play maybe without fans? Possibly.
02:49 I believe there will be a season. We just don't know how much of one. We don't know when it will start.
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