Report: It’s ‘Inevitable’ That College Sports Won’t be Played in Fall

Saturday has not been a good day in terms of hope for a college football season.

The day started with the MAC postponing all fall sports because of the United States’ continued struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. They were the first FBS conference to do so. Then Saturday evening, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported that a “veteran Power Five athletic director” told him that it is “inevitable” that college football won’t happen this fall.

Dodd spoke with two Power Five ADs who referenced “a lack of progress fighting the coronavirus, according to their medical professionals.” College sports came to a halt on March 12, a day the United State’s reported 393 new coronavirus cases. There were 60,184 new cases reported Friday.

Big Ten presidents met Saturday, according to Dodd. The conference announced Saturday that its football teams wouldn’t go to full-padded practices as originally anticipated. Kevin Warren, the league’s commissioner, is believed to prefer a season in the spring, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In Big 12 world, OU is pausing practices because of a shift in their schedule and allowing players to return home if they want to. OU’s opening opponent — Missouri State — saw its league cancel the season but it could still be allowed to play OU, albeit not on the originally-scheduled August 29 date.

University of Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley announced Saturday evening that he is pausing preseason training camp for a week due to a change in OU’s 2020 game schedule. Riley, whose team began training camp July 31 and held its fifth practice today, said his players will be able to go home tomorrow for several days. [Sooner Sports]

And … yeah.

It strikes me if you are sending players home at this point you aren’t expecting them to have to come back any time soon. https://t.co/L85E5tdjfW

— Michael Peters (@mgpeters23) August 9, 2020

The Big Ten was one of the first Power Five conferences to alter its 2020 football season, the other being the Pac-12. Pac-12 presidents have a regularly-scheduled conference call on Tuesday, according to Dodd.

The Big 12 reportedly could take a different path altogether not dependent on what the Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC or SEC decide.

Just texted with a high-ranking UT official. Was told that Texas/Big 12 view its decision as completely independent from other conferences (including Big 10). This source believes that the Big 12 and Texas will proceed forward as scheduled, knowing that unknowns exist "like MLB".

— Geoff Ketchum (@gkketch) August 8, 2020

Here is what Oklahoma State receiver Tylan Wallace said Wednesday on if teams could play and not spread the virus.

“I feel like it’s going to be really hard to,” Wallace said. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to do the best that we can not to, but I think it’s going to be a really tough situation to play and not be able to spread it.”

Multiple college football players have already opted out of the 2020 season, including one of Wallace’s biggest competitions for the Biletnikoff Award, Rondale Moore. Moore announced his decision Thursday, citing he would just begin preparation for the NFL Draft.

This all stinks. Even if the season does happen in the spring, that brings up a whole other heap of questions, the first being “Will we even be in a better spot with COVID-19 by then?”

Then another smorgasbord of questions dealing with player eligibility and whether NFL prospects would chose to play in a season so close to the NFL Draft. But it is looking more and more like those questions will need to be asked and that there won’t actually be college football later on this fall.