Six-week period needed before college football season begins?
The coronavirus pandemic that put NCAA and professional sports competitions on hold in March will likely continue to affect leagues through the summer and fall months.
Nevertheless, hopes that some sort of college football season will occur in 2020 remain strong among executives who will make such decisions.
On Monday, Stadium's Brett McMurphy reported the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee is recommending a six-week period for preseason training activities ahead of the start of a regular season. Per McMurphy, it's not known if six weeks would be mandatory for all programs.
All FBS schools are currently scheduled to kick their seasons off between Aug. 29 and Sept. 7.
Many factors will affect the start and completion of a college football season during a virus outbreak that isn't likely to subside until a vaccine is readily available. Universities aiming to have students on campuses for fall terms can't yet finalize those plans because so much remains unknown about potential future coronavirus waves.
As McMurphy wrote, the season likely won't begin on time if students can't return to campuses by late July/early August. "You prepare for the worst and hope for the best," one source told McMurphy. "Five months [until the scheduled start of the season] is still a long time away."
In that aspect, college football is following in the footsteps of the NFL. The NFL completed free agency and the draft as scheduled, although the draft was a virtual experience with players, executives and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell participating from their homes.
It took one night for the NBA to indefinitely suspend play on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. The NHL paused it's season the following day. MLB currently has no set plans to begin the league's 2020 campaign.
Earlier this month, ESPN's Chris Fowler explained the idea of moving the start of the college football season to February 2021 was "gaining momentum."
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