Yesterday, two Power 5 conferences, the Big Ten and the Pac-12, announced that they would be postponing their football seasons until Spring 2021. But as SoonerScoop.com was first to report (via Twitter), presidents of schools in the Big 12 will allow the conference to move forward with a fall season, and a conference scheduled has been released (Twitter link).
Field Yates of ESPN.com observes that, in addition to the Big 12, the ACC and SEC are still planning to play in 2020 (Twitter link). Of course, the situation remains fluid, but for now, 60% of the Power 5 conferences are trying to forge ahead with something akin to a normal season.
Even if that happens, the NFL will still have a major decision to make with respect to the 2021 draft. If collegiate games are not played until the spring, the season may not be completed prior to the draft as currently scheduled. The NFL has the right to unilaterally push the draft back to July 2, but any further delay would require another NFL-NFLPA bargaining session.
Another factor to consider in all of this is the likelihood of additional opt-outs. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that several top collegiate players have lined up agents and are preparing to opt out of the next college season, whenever it’s played (video link). A few high-end players have already made that decision, and it stands to reason that more and more players will end up doing the same in an effort to maximize their professional prospects.
RapSheet adds that the NFL understandably wants to do everything it can to accommodate college football, which includes a modification of the offseason schedule.
The biggest detriment I can see to all this (monetarily, at least) is that crowning a national champion via playoff becomes pretty much impossible if various conferences are playing at different times of the year.
Can you crown a national champion without a full schedule of games? Even if they all played in the fall, each league was limiting the schedules to conference play anyway. Hard to imagine a college football playoff taking place with only the power 5 playing and it only consisting of inter league play.
Yeah, I think at this stage the intention is strictly to develop athletes for the professional level and stick to intra-conference games
but exactly how profitable is that for these colleges? obviously you might take what you can get this year, but if moving back games helps these colleges financially they will. there is a clear incentive to have more games, playoffs or otherwise, and moving back the season overall probably provides the best avenue for that.
Exactly. If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us that if you’re looking for reasons in sports, follow the money, NOT the well being of the athletes.