Moving football to the spring might be only realistic option still available
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Imagine a day in which the Iowa football team, the Iowa men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Iowa wrestling team, the Iowa baseball team and the Iowa softball team all compete on the same day.
Actually, you might not have to imagine it much longer.
As crazy as it seems, the push to move the college football season to the spring is gaining more momentum and traction as the highly contagious Coronavirus continues to spread in multiple states.
Time is running out on playing major college football this fall, so that would leave spring as the only viable option to salvage what would be left of the 2020 season.
Moving football to the spring would create a logistical nightmare, but nobody ever said adjusting to a global pandemic would be easy.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and these are without question desperate times.
The Mid-American Conference recently announced that it would not have fall sports, as did the Missouri Valley Conference and the Big Sky Conference.
The University of Connecticut also announced that it would not play football this fall.
The MAC hopes to play football this coming spring, and that seems to be the new hope for just about everyone.
The Big Ten Conference issued a statement on Saturday saying that “helmets shall be the only piece of protective equipment student-athletes may wear as we continue to transition prudently through preseason practice.”
That’s a fancier way of saying that it’s still too risky to have full contact because of the threat from the virus.
The Big Ten based its decision on the advice of counsel of the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.
The Big Ten Conference also released revised schedules for the 14 conference teams just this past Wednesday that has each team playing 10 conference games this fall, beginning on the first weekend of September.
It was an attempt to create more flexibility. But you wonder if it was really just delaying the inevitable.
Whatever the case, something obviously has changed for the worse in the last five days.
The inability to contain the virus, and the liability that comes with it, has lots of people feeling uneasy about playing football this fall, namely the student-athletes.
A group of more than 1,000 Big Ten football players is calling on the conference and the NCAA to devise a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and well-being of players leading up to and during the season.
Players from the Pacific 12 Conference have made a similar request, and don’t be surprised if players from more conferences do the same over the next few weeks.
It seems that most of the players want to play this fall, but they want to be assured of their safety, and they want a comprehensive plan in place that is designed to protect them.
Multiple Iowa players said Sunday on Twitter that they want to play this fall, using the hashtag #WeWanttoPlay, including senior receiver and star kick returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette, who posted: Find a solution!!!#WeWanttoPlay.
Find a solution!!! #WeWanttoPlay
— ISM 6 (@_ihmirr_) August 9, 2020
Iowa announced this past week that it would only allow a seating capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 for its five home games this fall.
But don’t be surprised if Iowa takes it a step further by not having any fans in attendance, because if Penn State can take that drastic step, then so can Iowa.
This story is evolving on a daily basis, but sadly, not how we had hoped it would back in April and May when time was more on our side.
Moving football to the spring would buy more time, but what if the virus doesn’t fade and there is no vaccine by then?
What if the virus should continue to spread and create fear and uncertainty, even in the spring?
Colleges would be liable, and the cost could be devastating.
The NBA and the NHL have shown that if you keep your athletes in a protective bubble that you can create what appears to be a safe and functioning environment, unlike Major League Baseball, which chose to not have a bubble, but has paid a price with multiple games already having been cancelled.
The problem is how would you create a bubble for college football players?
From Iowa’s standpoint, you could rent out a hotel for two or three months and have the hotel and the Iowa Football Complex be the only places where the players are allowed to be.
That would mean taking classes online, and basically shutting out the world.
To require professional athletes to live and work in a bubble is one thing.
But to have college student-athletes live and compete in a bubble is entirely different.
One is paid handsomely, while the other isn’t.
It’s easier to envision college basketball being played in a bubble because more games could be played during a shorter period of time, and because it would involve way fewer student-athletes.
Football is hard enough to play just once a week, from a physical and from a preparation standpoint, whereas it’s not unusual to play three basketball games in a week.
You can’t blame the conferences for trying to buy more time, and for trying desperately to figure a way to save the college football season because to lose a full season would have a devastating financial effect on so many.
You can’t blame the conferences as long as they don’t lose focus on the bigger picture, which is the safety of the student-athletes, coaches and support staff.
The push to move football to the spring would show that the college decision makers truly are concerned about player safety, but without having to give up entirely on the 2020 season.
An eight or nine-game season in the spring wouldn’t be ideal, but it sure would beat the alternative, especially if a vaccine was being used by then, allowing fans in the stands.
The season couldn’t go much past May, however, because at some point, the players would need a break, both physically and mentally, before they start preparing for a full season in the fall of 2021.
That would be a lot of football being played during one calendar year, but again, desperate times call for acts of desperation. So don’t be surprised if the Big Ten Conference announces in the next few days that the football season will be pushed back to the spring.
That’s a lot better than saying the 2020 season won’t be played at all. Even if it is played in the spring, along with multiple other sports, something is better than nothing in this case.