I am becoming more and more certain there will be a college football season this fall.
Permit me a moment of navel-gazing, if you will, before we get to why. I considered writing my column in early March about the threat of the coronavirus, and how it presented a challenge I wasn't sure the major sports leagues and the NCAA were ready to meet: putting revenue to the side and cancelling mass gatherings that had the potential to be the center of viral outbreaks as a preemptive measure.
I did not know enough, or didn't think I knew enough, about the virus and disease to write a column projecting its future impact comfortably. I thought it better to remain silent and be thought a fool than type my thoughts out and remove all doubt.
Instead, I turned that afternoon's spring football practice into a column on Eliah Drinkwitz's approach in recruiting, as Missouri wrapped up its 2020 class, and his refusal to name first- and second-stringers on the first day of spring practice, or even to use the results of spring practice to determine who would be first- or second-string come fall.
I don't regret shelving my thoughts on the matter at the time, and happily, they were mostly wrong. Things got moving pretty quickly in that department once the NBA discovered two players tested positive, and many NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL players and front offices took steps to guarantee their gameday operations staffs would be cared for as well.
Things have been bad, particularly in the U.S.'s most densely populated areas. Eight of the 10 worst current outbreaks, according to the New York Times, are in prisons; the third-worst is the Sioux Falls pork plant and the fifth-worst is the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier currently in Guam.
More than one million Americans have contracted the coronavirus and more than 65,000 have died. It continues to be an ongoing public health crisis, but Mid-Missouri has been spared the worst-case scenario thanks in part to luck, and in part to everyday people doing what they could to help limit the spread.
Cole County has already lifted its stay-at-home order, and the YMCA is working its way back to normal operations. The statewide order expires tomorrow, as does Boone County's, which means parks, pools and gyms will be allowed to re-open under certain guidelines.
Many major universities around the U.S. are planning to hold in-person instruction for the fall semester and resume normal operations, including the UM System. Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk assured donors and season-ticket holders in a letter last week the plan is the fall season will go on as scheduled.
The NCAA has suggested a six-week practice period before the start of the season, which would mean conditions need to be safe enough for players to return to campus to resume practices in early to mid July.
The biggest barrier to resuming play might be the fact so many conferences have spread out to maximize TV footprints. State and local governments and public health officials from Texas to South Carolina, from Missouri to Louisiana, would have to be in agreement in the affirmative state-run higher education institutions could reopen and football take place.
It's also possible some conferences go on without member schools from states that haven't fully reopened yet, or that games are played without spectators.
But with the way things are currently trending, I think the public perception is the worst has passed. Hopefully, it has.
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May 03, 2020 at 01:03PM
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Press Box: Signs pointing toward college football in the fall - Jefferson City News Tribune
"football" - Google News
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