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Depending on when you’re reading this, the Penn State football program will either be about to start, in the middle of, or might have already won its first game of the 2020 season two months from today.
There’s just one pesky problem with that prediction: Will there even be a football game at Beaver Stadium on Sept. 5 against Kent State?
The sand is not stopping its run through the proverbial hourglass as the clock continues to tick toward the sport’s first games, which are scheduled for a week earlier than the Nittany Lions', and yet there has been no definitive news one way or the other about whether or not any of them will take place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Worse yet, there is no deadline in place for a decision to be made and no commissioner to make a unilateral call. Even if there was, he or she would certainly hold out as long as possible as confirmed case counts continue to rise nationwide while some programs have shut down their voluntary workouts after too many players tested positive.
Penn State is not one of them -- yet, at least -- as the program reported recently that all student-athletes have tested negative as of June 30. Two weeks from now, however, that could be a different story, as Kansas State proved when it went from zero to a total of nearly 15 before stopping workouts.
Once that happens, here or anywhere else, in the regular or off-season, then what?
Then, there’s a multitude of other issues to figure out.
What happens when regular students return to campus? Will every school follow the same testing pattern, something that is probably impossible economically but probably advisible from a health perspective?
Will forfeits be inevitable? How can schedules remain even if some teams lose non-confernece games because Group of 5 schools can’t afford to safely play? Can fans be in the stands? Will coaches, some of which are at greater risk to fall gravely ill because of the problems COVID-19 can cause compared to their younger charges, be walled off from players most of the week or on game day?
When, and not if, one conference goes about things differently than another, can a true champion be crowned? What if that happens with schools in the same conference? Then, looking way down the road, if most colleges are moving to online classes only after Thanksgiving, will there even be bowl games, or a College Football Playoff?
And how, exactly, can linemen in the trenches or two or four or six players diving for a fumble social distance?
If you made it through those paragraphs and very much doubt that a season of any sort, let alone a full one, will be played, no one will blame you. The flip side, of course, is that the economic impact of a lost football fall will be dramatic for universities and their surrounding communities, let alone the student-athletes who, while still able to earn an education, would miss out on some of the best job interview opportunities of their life if they think the NFL is in their future.
“There’s no doubt that there’s been a little bit of pessimism here in the last couple of weeks that we really hadn’t had for probably about four to six weeks,” Penn State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour said last week. “We’d been ticking up on the optimism scale. I think that the approach that I’m taking to this is that I think that’s part of the ebb and flow of the virus. Obviously, my hope is that maybe, as people start looking at the masking and the social distancing again, and all of the precautions, and kind of understanding or maybe recommitting to the seriousness of this that we’ll see it flatten out.
“The bottom line is, whatever it is we’re going to do, we’re going to do it only if it’s safe and healthy, starting with students, and then moving to coaches and staff, and then spreading out to our community.”
In recent interviews with Sports Illustrated, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey suggested decisions have to be made by the time camp is scheduled to start on Aug. 7, while Ole Miss athletic director echoed Barbour’s sense that things maybe aren’t looking as good as they once did.
When Barbour met the media in March, the idea of playing in the spring of 2021 was floated as an idea to take seriously. Before long, it was kicked to the curb, almost to be left like a trash can the homeowner never bothered to collect. Now, however, it’s being rolled up the driveway some, if you will, as a potential option, albeit one way down the list.
There within lies the problem, however: The list of possibilities is long but the file of certainties is almost empty, save for the one that says uncertainty will rule this college football season, whenever it might be played.
To answer the question posed at the start, then: Will college football be played in two months’ time? It’s still anyone’s guess, just like it was two months ago. In April, we said we’d know more in May, and then more in June.
Now?
“What we’re doing is we’re planning,” Barbour said. “Obviously, given the uncertainty, we’re having to work on a lot of plans, a lot of different plans, a lot of different scenarios, and when the time comes, if it’s healthy and safe to do it, we’ll obviously do it, and if it’s not, we won’t.”
Who will make that decision and when?
It’s just another one of the many questions that are running out of time to be answered.
More Penn State football coverage:
- Here’s how to buy the 2020 Penn State football Whiteout game gear
- Penn State football’s July roadmap: Virtual combine results, coaches reunite with players, and more
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The Penn State football season is scheduled to kick off two months from today; will it?: Analysis - PennLive
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