We all have friends who promised us that “after the election, all the COVID talk will disappear.”
Apparently, football didn’t get the memo.
And while squabbling about election results continues on TV’s around the country, the virus is still going strong, picking up more momentum than Kyle Trask’s Heisman campaign.
As we reach Thanksgiving, COVID-19 has wiped out 83 college football games, or approaching one out of every five games scheduled to be played since all five of the major conferences and most of the second level ones resumed game action. (That does not count all the games originally set to be played in early September that got the axe over the summer.)
That figure includes two Thanksgiving weekend match ups that have already been canned.
More are sure to follow. (How are they going to play a game in Iowa City on Friday with the COVID positivity rate near 40% in that state?)
With the weather turning colder, the number of games to be cancelled and declared “no contest” is certain to keep rising. Some very high profile match ups, including some historical end of season rivalries, won’t get played this season.
At this point, when a big game does get played, it becomes breaking news.
So as the regular season struggles toward the finish line, thoughts start to turn to the post-season. The first College Football Playoff rankings are coming out just before the holiday, meaning in a normal year, this would be when post-season plans would start to take shape.
Not in 2020.
Already four “minor” bowls – games – which are typically money makers for TV and bowl organizers, but not for the football programs involved – have been cancelled.
There won’t be a Bahamas Bowl, a Hawaii Bowl, a Redbox Bowl in San Francisco nor a Holiday Bowl in San Diego. And those are games that would take place in desirable December locations.
As of now, they still expect schools to want to participate in bowl games in Boise and New York City. In December. And lose more money while doing so.
It’s all a House of Cards right now. So what they should do, right here and now, is go ahead and cancel ALL the non-New Year Six bowl games.
You can make a case to shut it all down, but sadly, it will probably take a tragedy – which could be avoided if they simply called it all off – before that big of a step would be taken. The revenue from the New Year’s Six games and the play-off can not be forfeited. So some sort of compromise is in order.
How about this idea: Play only the New Year’s Six Bowl games and the subsequent playoff games…and play them in a bubble environment.
Bubbles work.
We’ve seen it.
The NBA and NHL were able to finish their seasons with a full play-off schedule while containing the players and support people in a controlled and safer than normal environment.
Major League Baseball tried a slimmed down version of a bubble, and made it all the way until the final game of the World Series before Justin Turner happened. Had they gone full blown bubble, they may have gotten away unscathed – or at least un-infected.
So when the time comes, they should take the 12 teams that the playoff seeding committee deems most deserving and get all the them COVID tested…and then tested again. Then, when everyone passes their tests and are designated COVID free, ship them someplace they can be isolated in, like say, Dallas for instance, and lock ‘em down. (The Dallas Cowboys final home game is the previous weekend.)
The current schedule will need some adjusting, but after the way teams have been able to move things around and put games together at the last minute this season, that should be no problem. (AD’s are going to have trouble convincing people they need to set football schedules eight years in advance anymore.) With no fans involved, you can play an early afternoon game, followed by a night game, in a single stadium on three consecutive days, starting on New Year’s Eve at AT&T Stadium, aka Jerry World.
The condensed “Bubble” schedule could look like this:
- Thursday December 31st, 12noon CST, Cotton Bowl
- Thursday December 31st, 7pm Peach Bowl
- Friday January 1st, 12noon Fiesta Bowl
- Friday January 1st, 7pm Orange Bowl
- Saturday January 2nd, 12noon Rose Bowl/Semi-final
- Saturday January 2nd, 7pm Sugar Bowl/Semi-final
- Monday January 11th, 7pm National Championship game
Do something like this, and you have a decent chance to get all these games played – and collect all the TV revenue that comes with that – in a virus-free environment. Forge ahead with everything has it’s currently set up and planned for, and it’s a guarantee that not only will several more lower tier bowls get cancelled – probably at the last minute after teams have spent time and money traveling there – but one or more of the NY6/Play-off games will get canned, too. This virus doesn’t give a damn.
The decision makers involved should start planning now, before things get even worse and contingency plans become last minute. Stop pushing for what they (and most fans) want, and start planning for what can realistically work. “Normal” is unavailable this year.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
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