With the spring semester now remote and all sports canceled at the University of Florida, Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin — like all other administrators in college athletics — is taking the new normal day by day as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic with social distancing for the foreseeable future. Stricklin is working under the assumption that the COVID-19 outbreak won't affect football season, at least that's the hope.
“For right now, it’s all manageable,” Stricklin told Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel this week, “but the question your mind goes to really quickly is if this lasts into another school year. From a financial standpoint, if we’re not playing football games in the fall, it will shake the foundation of college athletics. As everyone knows, football pays for the enterprise to go forward.”
Stricklin told The Orlando Sentinel that football accounts for nearly 85 percent of the university's sports income annually, meaning the loss of a season would be catastrophic. It's a similar grim outlook at all major universities where football rules the roost, especially at programs ranked inside the preseason Top 25.
What happens if the country stays under relative lockdown and isolation through September?
“That would be a game-changer,” Stricklin said. "It’s not just ticket revenue; it’s the donations that go along with that. It’s the sponsorship money that goes along with the idea that games are going to be played. And then there’s the TV money. If there aren’t games that are being broadcast, we probably aren’t going to get TV money.”
Natural catastrophes and violent events have altered the sports landscape for the past 100 years, but nothing like this. For the first time since 1939, the NCAA Tournament was wiped away and a nationwide sports shutdown followed after a state of emergency swept the country due to this viral pandemic. The NBA, NHL and MLB have gone on temporary hiatus until the CDC says it's safe to resume.
Even theme parks, notably Disney-owned properties, have closed.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sounded confident this week that football will continue at some point and not threaten the 2020 season, but his office will monitor the CDC's advice closely — as all Power 5 leagues are doing — before making the call. Sankey will reconvene with athletic directors and school administrators in mid-April to reassess the situation.
"If you look at the national public messaging about no gatherings above 50, (it is) certainly difficult to conduct any football practice under that limitation, and even with smaller numbers, it had been communicated 10, as often referenced, thereby making it impossible into May, has been stated," Sankey said this week. "So, I’m not going to be overly optimistic about the return to practice. We haven’t fully foreclosed that opportunity, but I think practically that window’s pretty narrow."
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March 22, 2020 at 08:25PM
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Florida AD Scott Stricklin on coronavirus, 2020 football season - 247Sports
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