Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley: 'Can't imagine' canceled college football season

The Ivy League and Patriot League canceling college football and other fall sports amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic could represent the first dominoes to fall en route to the postponement of all top-tier collegiate football.

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley hopes that isn't the case.

According to ESPN's David M. Hale, Riley is holding onto any glimmer of hope for college football, even if it means pushing games back to early 2021: 

"I just can't imagine a scenario (where we don't play)," Riley said. "Whether it's something we do in the fall, whether it's a shortened season, whether it's spring, there's nothing we should take off the table. Regardless of what we have to do, I don't think there's anything we can't work around and we can't adjust and can't make work in order to play college football. We've all got to do our part on that."

Riley continued: "The health and safety is the most important thing, and that's the determining factor. If we can't do it, we can't do it. But if we can, college football is so important to these communities, these universities, these athletes — not just football athletes, but college football affects every athlete on every campus. It's a big, big deal. It's not more important than health, but if we can get it to a safe place, we've got to find a way to get it done, whenever and however."

On Monday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was less than optimistic about conference schools participating in football seasons due to growing coronavirus cases throughout much of the country. 

The SEC, ACC and Big 12 are set to make decisions on this season in late July. 

The Big Ten and Pac-12 moved to conference-only schedules for fall sports, but those seasons could be canceled later this month or in August.