Penn State AD speaks out against spring college football season

On the same day that Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway said he is "far from certain that we are going to have a college football season in the fall" and that the campaign could be postponed to the spring, Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour was less than keen on the notion of playing football in the first half of 2021.

As ESPN's Heather Dinich explained, Barbour spoke with reporters via a Wednesday Zoom teleconference:

"One of the biggest challenges [of a spring season] — and it's probably the biggest one in my mind — is the proximity to next season, and frankly a second lost spring ball. Overcomeable, if perhaps we're willing to have a shortened season — again in the category of 'something is better than nothing,' that may not be a problem at all."

Barbour admitted she's not fully confident the Nittany Lions or any other teams will play a standard schedule, saying:

"There's no doubt 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.

"Obviously, my hope is that, maybe, as people start looking at the masking and social distancing again and all of the precautions and recommitting to the seriousness of this, we'll see it flatten out."

Barbour also said no student-athletes who opt out of preseason preparations amid the uncontrolled virus outbreak will lose their scholarships. 

Over the weekend, Mark Blaudschun of Sports Illustrated wrote that the Ivy League could shut football programs down through the start of a spring season that would include only conference games. 

Iona basketball coach Rick Pitino tweeted on Wednesday that he believes the start of the basketball season should be pushed back to at least January with an altered schedule that includes only league games.