I can’t make heads or tails of how the 130 teams that make up college football’s 10 conferences intend to play out this season (and crown a national champion) without provoking terminal questions about its legitimacy. So join my team if you can’t either.
After all, two of the most influential conferences – namely the Big Ten, which includes the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines, and the Pac-12, which includes the USC Trojans and Washington Huskies – have already canceled their fall games, citing the clear and present danger of Covid-19. But two equally influential conferences – namely the SEC, which includes the LSU Tigers and Tennessee Volunteers, and the Big-12, which includes the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns – have decided to kick off as “normal.”
Given the way these lines have already been drawn, it hardly matters whether the other conferences decide to cancel or play. The die is cast for an asterisk season. Not to mention the looming spectre of outbreaks bedeviling game schedules – as Major League Baseball teams can readily attest.
The point is that, where records and awards are concerned, this football season will have so many (pot)holes, it will make swiss cheese look American. Put another way, thinking college football can play this season with just a few of the conferences participating, haphazardly, is rather like thinking a woman can be just a little bit pregnant.
This is why, instead of playing Lucy-and-Charlie games, the directors of each conference should announce that all games will be played merely as exhibitions. This will make it a lot easier and less consequential to cancel on a game-by-game basis if/when enough players test positive to make playing prohibitive. It will also preclude any debate about the legitimacy of records and awards.
More to the point, though, it will provide a fair amount of the
- game-like experience players need;
- revenue schools want; and
- entertainment fans crave.
But, perhaps above all, it will also spare bona-fide amateur players in their final year – who happen to play in conferences that decided to cancel – understandable resentment that could last the rest of their lives.
Again, given the problems Major League Baseball is having, it’s foolhardy for any college conference to think it will be able to play a normal football season. Surely it makes far more sense to seize what limited opportunities Covid presents to play, and be thankful.
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