How coronavirus could negatively impact the 2020 college football season
There are things bigger than sports right now. That much we know. That much you’ve probably heard about the last few days.
But eventually, we will get back to a place where sports are being played and our favorite escape will return to all of its glory. When that is, nobody knows.
Even though college football season is still a solid 6 months away (thankfully), it appears that this is going to have an impact on the sport in 2020. That’s not my way of saying we’ll see games canceled or anything like that. But it is worth pointing out that spring football as we know it will not exist in 2020.
Soon after Georgia and Auburn already announced that they postponed all spring football activities, the SEC suspended all team activities until April 15. Five teams had already started spring practice. Vandy and South Carolina had spring games scheduled for early April. Four more teams had spring games scheduled for April 11. Seven more teams have their spring games scheduled for April 18. At this point, it’s hard to imagine any sort of spring football in the near future when we just saw the NCAA wipe out championships. Shoot, even The Masters is postponed.
What’s the result of this for college football? My best guess is that it lessens the product. There’s a reason that teams practice and scrimmage in the spring. If it didn’t help, they’d just tell everyone to stay home.
So I apologize for this being considered a “negative” story during a time when it seems like that’s the overwhelming tone, but hey, at least we’re talking football?
Here are the 5 ways I think the sport will be hurt in 2020:
1. Quarterback battles
One aspect spring practices/games allow teams to see is separation at the quarterback position. A reduction or cancellation of those things will obviously limit the opportunities to see these guys play side-by-side. For coaches dealing with quarterback battles, that’s an issue.
Shoot, even quarterbacks who are returning know the importance of those reps. Remember how crucial last offseason was for Jake Fromm to get on the same page as his young wideouts? That learning curve proved to be a steep one.
Or what about a new transfer quarterback trying to win the starting job like like D’Eriq King? The former Houston quarterback dealt with the death of his father and Miami even changed the practice schedule to accommodate for him, but then on Thursday, we found out that the ACC shut down all spring practices:
This has been a weird year so far.
— King (@DeriqKing_) March 13, 2020
Yep.
Another example for why spring practice actually matters for quarterback battles was a situation like Auburn’s last year. The Tigers had a 4-way battle that appeared to be wide open. After spring camp wrapped up — a camp that included a full-contact scrimmage for quarterbacks — Gus Malzahn made the determination that it was down to Bo Nix and Joey Gatewood.
Yes, the expectation is that fall camp will still give quarterbacks plenty of reps, but I can’t help but think that teams who return a wealth of experience at the quarterback and receiver position have an even stronger advantage on the teams who don’t.
2. Getting early enrollees up to speed
“Welcome to college, freshman. Just in case you thought this wasn’t all new enough, we’re going to totally change your schedule so that all your classes are online and the practices you just started are now postponed.”
That’s not a curveball any freshman expects to get. A lot of the early enrollees are just figuring out how to function without their parents for the first time. Now, they could be in a situation without practice? That’s not going to help their development.
Such a major trend in college football during the latter half of the 2010s was how much more freshmen were relied on. There’s no longer this belief that true freshmen can’t succeed at the Power 5 level, and much of that is because they get quality reps as early enrollees. By the time fall camp rolls around, they understand the system and that learning curve isn’t nearly as steep as it once was.
Am I saying freshmen are destined to ride the bench in 2020? No, but freshmen who dominate a spring game or wow coaches in spring practices often have the leg up to win starting jobs in fall camp (see Stingley, Derek). Again, just like I said with there being a reason that spring practices exist, there’s also a reason early enrollees exist. Their path to playing time might be a little tougher to navigate now.
3. New coaches
In the SEC alone, there are 4 new coaches. You can bet that all of them were planning on having a normal spring practice as they navigated their own new surroundings. To have a hiccup in the schedule certainly puts them at a disadvantage as they try to establish their culture. Even a suspension and not an outright cancelation hurts.
New coaches are already forced to deal with essentially having 2 weeks to field an entire recruiting class because of the Early Signing Period. That’s on top of hiring a new staff, as well. That’s why it’s not even fair to judge a coach until he gets a full recruiting cycle.
This feels like another hurdle for them to clear. If new coaches had it their way, they’d get an increased amount of time to practice in order to add structure to the lives of their players. It seems inevitable that there will be a lack of structure, and it will make a difference.
Picture being a guy like Mel Tucker. He showed up late to the party as it is. Then he found out on Friday that the Big Ten suspended all team activities until at least April 6. That’s precious time that’ll go to waste.
BREAKING: The Big Ten Conference announced all organized team activities have been suspended until April 6 and will be re-evaluated at that time.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 13, 2020
All he and other new coaches can hope for is that they’ve got some veterans in the locker room who won’t treat this time as a vacation.
4. Players coming off season-ending injuries
If players get a full spring practice workload, then this is somewhat of a moot point. Again, it’s hard to envision a spring scrimmage though. That’s the issue. For players like Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson, you can bet that a spring game in front of fans would have been an important thing for him coming off his season-ending injury. Even with a lessened crowd or limited contact, the mental aspect of that was significant.
It’s a case-by-case basis, but going on the field for the first time in fall isn’t ideal. Could someone like Wilson or Alabama’s Dylan Moses be a bit more timid at the start of the season? Or will instincts just take over and they’ll be back to their pre-injury selves? I don’t know, but I do know that I can’t guarantee the latter scenario.
In a perfect world, they’d get those reps in a somewhat simulated environment before the start of the season. We we know all too well right now, this isn’t a perfect world.
5. Attendance
Hold on. I’m not saying that games are going to be played in empty stadiums. I’m not even saying that we’ll at any point during the 2020 season look at the crowds and be like, “wow, this weak crowd must be from coronavirus.”
What I am saying is that according to CBS Sports, college football attendance is at its lowest since 1996. Even the almighty SEC had its lowest average attendance since 2000. College football attendance fell for the 6th consecutive year.
In other words, the margin for error is slim. The overwhelming feeling as to why this trend exists is because of the combination of increased ticket prices/cost of attending a game with increased increased TV options. We’re a few days removed from thinking there would be an NCAA Tournament without fans because of coronavirus fears. If there’s any fear still lingering, some might decide not to roll the dice on the in-person experience when the at-home experience continues to improve.
That’s my only point. If I’m predicting today, I’d be stunned if we saw Alabama or Ohio State playing in front of half-empty stadiums. I’m pretty sure you could tell those fan bases that they’d get coronavirus just for entering the stadium and you’d still get nearly-packed house on a given fall Saturday.
But the longer this uncertainty lasts, the more likely we see this carry into the start of the season.
Here’s hoping that we’re all able to move along and get back to as close to a normal college football season as humanly possible.
It is my hope that this virus will soon pass into just a bad memory…hopefully the warm Spring breezes will abate it and not only our beloved game, College Football…but the entire Planet Earth can return to normalcy.
That’s what trump said as well but a lot of people forget that though it is winter in the US of A it is summer in other parts of the world. And those countries and continents in their summer months with “warm spring breezes” are still experiencing exponential growth of cases of carona virus. I hope it ends soon but it won’t be because of warmer weather.
Well, it’s closer to spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. Typically more mild, so not the dead of winter or blazing part of summer, in either area.
Areas like Iran and Italy that are getting hit hard now are in the 50’s to upper 60’s. Same thing in Wuhan, China. There are cases in areas more tropical, but not running overly rampant, like Puerto Rico where it’s around 80 degrees but they only have 3 confirmed cases and it’s not spreading like crazy despite it being a pretty crowded island.
Had the Government properly did it’s job from the beginning, the country wouldn’t be so uncertain at this point. Democrats, Republicans, every last one in office needs and should be held responsible for this current event we’re in.
However, I’m glad the NCAA to the necessary steps to protect everyone.
You are a prince for reporting on other’s failings when you cannot even splice together a grammatically correct sentence.
Here’s a grammatically correct sentence:
Auburn will probably suck once all sports are restored. Better?
Lol coming from a Colorado fan.
It was a more proper response than we had to H1N1. As far as quarantining and travel restrictions go, it was the most aggressive action taken against an outbreak ever.
Well, don’t let something inconvenient like that get in the way of your agenda, conservative or liberal.
Kentucky and Georgia….It makes sense now..End of discussion..Back to football
I hope you didn’t just mistake USC’s logo for Kentucky’s…
Your ignoranic response came oozing through the screen. When you don’t begin testing immediately of course it will appear as if everything is “done better!”
I live in NYC and they (Local Officials) have begun to shut down the most visited tourist city in America. That idiot that doesn’t know words other than; great, terrific, tremendous, etc, has placed the entire United States in grave danger. Not issuing tests so his numbers “don’t” surpass the H1N1 is as absurd as your response. But wait till the tests are issued and it goes from 200 to 20,000 over night.
We here in New York City know Donald Trump all to well. Last thing..The H1N1 didnt wipe out $10k of my 401k in a matter of days. Guess what did? Coronavirus. Know why it did? That idiot with a sprayed on face continues to lie.
$10,000 is not a big hit to your 401K. Trump has made you way more than that in the past three years if you invested wisely.
TDS.
The fact you think the virus is the only reason for the volatility in the stock market is foolish. We’ve been in a bull market for 11 years now. It’s bound to correct. The virus has had it affect, but this was inevitable and there are more players in this game.
Might want to stay off the Kool-Aid kid! SMH!
The Russian oil War has as much to do with the volatile market as anything. I also love how when your 401k is going up, it is in spite of Trump. When it goes down, its all Trump’s fault.
The bottom line is this: You are trying to politicize a Natural Disaster. Trump and his admin are doing an acceptable job combating this Virus, along with all the unique variables and problems it poses. (Just as Obama did with H1N1, fyi.)
You and all your friends in NYC keep enjoying your sky-high taxes, your limited freedoms, and your police-hating neighbors. We in the South know y’all all too well.
NYC – now THAT explains a LOT! And who exactly is to blame for the stock market’s meteoric rise that enabled you to lose a piddly $10k and STILL be way up from where you were?? Actually, there’s no reason for the huge decline in the market, other than the short sellers making a bundle off idiots who panic and sell! The whole overreaction is nothing but another “peachment” attempt – won’t work either! You should worry more about your Communist Mayor confiscating your 401 so more of your illegals can live more comfortably!
Y’all really are brainwashed.
Trump is an absolute moron and has bungled this from the start.
Nothing new here. He will go down as the biggest mistake in political history. And all his glassy-eyed, sheep will be remembered with disgust.
Yep. Biggest mistake EVER! He only brought back jobs, fought against abortion, secured our border, protected our rights, rebuilt the military, viciously cracked down on terrorism, severely crippled China, and forced NATO to honor their agreement. All this he did under greater scrutiny and attack than any other president in history. History will remember President Trump two ways. One side will remember a “racist” and an “idiot”. The other side will remember him for his actions and the prosperity he oversaw. It’s easy to call the other side brainwashed. I’d rather you try to understand their viewpoint, and understand that 50% of the population is not stupid, they just happen to disagree with you.
Volman, I bet you also condemned him for that horrid attack by all that high powered artillery on that poor Syrian village just over your border in Ky! You must be one of those recently indoctrinated graduates!!
Wow you really don’t understand how things work do you? You’ve been spoon fed the MSNBC and CNN crap to your brain. Trump has done more good for this country than any President since Reagan. Obama about killed us but Trump has been unburying us since he took office.
We’ve had more jobs and more prosperity in the last 4 years than Obama ever dreamed about. I hope we can get 4 more years before the liberal elite try to destroy us all.
Trump supporters are pretty much the most ignorant, treasonous people in the country.
Amazing how so many of you still call yourselves “Patriots.”
He’s a sick, twisted little liar, and all you guys can do is LIE to defend him. You call actual “news” fake, and listen to BS from Fox or whatever lying, right wing rhetoric machine backs your pathetic narrative.
Dump Trump! And all his weak-minded, glassy-eyed sheep.
You’re right Sluva. Knowing who had the first virus cases was the key to holding back the total numbers. Taiwan has proven this. Our government had 2 months to made test kits and did almost nothing. No excuse. Neither party called for preparation. The third parties didn’t call for preparation. The unspoken word was “who cares about people over sixty, children, and those battling other illness.
I placed blame on both parties along with all involved in updating the American people. Comparing the H1N1 which has come, did it’s damage and has gone to this Coronavirus (which we do not have any accurate data, testing results, exact location, etc is the worst arguement I’ve heard and keep hearing. What will be the arguement once this is overwith and results are in? Oh I know: Coronavirus under Trump killed 15,000 Americans in 5 months while the H1N1 killed 21,000 in 7 months, so Trump did a better job…
Where you getting the 15000? Out of you azz like your other statements? And for your edification, PRESIDENT TRUMP banned travel one month from the first reported case. Your POS oblama waited six months and 1000 DEATHS before he addressed the situation! And THEN he made the most awesomeness decision of his Presidency by naming Quid Pro Slo Joe to head the process, and whoosh, only another 20,000 Americans died!
@BLSINSC you, Fox News and the GOP have been saying this is all overblown now y’all want to act like Trump is doing a good job because he’s finally admitting there is a problem?
I know Republican love to blame Obama for everything but your assessment on the way he handled H1N1 simply isn’t true. Could he have done better? Sure. Could Trump have done better. ABSOLUTELY.
On April 15, 2009, the first case of H1N1 was identified in Cali, according to the CDC, and less than two weeks later, on April 26, 2009, the Obama administration declared a public health emergency. The day before, on April 25, the World Health Organization had declared a public health emergency. The same day — April 26 — the CDC began releasing antiviral drugs to treat the H1N1 flu, and two days later, the FDA approved a new CDC test for the disease.
The numbers of deaths for H1N1 was around 12,000-13,000 from April 2009 to April 2010. You have no idea what the numbers for COVID-19 are going to be a year from now.
Trump is finally starting to act like this is a health crisis (although he only seems to be able to talk about the economy), but you calling Obama a POS and Biden “Slo Joe” only reinforces the fact that name calling and finger pointing are the only play in y’alls playbook. It’s really pathetic.
Given the short memory of the nation as a whole I doubt COVID-19 or the Wuhan flu or whatever you want to call it will be on anyone’s mind when football season rolls around. It will probably be pretty far in our rear view mirror by July.
Don’t be surprised if it rears its ugly head again by next November after a dormancy. Hopefully there will be a vaccine by then.
Vaccine or not, I think the general public will be over it. Some seem to just be learning that the world can be a dangerous place. They too, will get used to this.
I hope you’re right. I think we’re about two weeks away from a nationwide meltdown.
We’re literally on the cusp of the 2020 season being cancelled.
Both college, and the NFL will very likely not play this season. We’re still at least a month or two from being able to return to some sense normalcy and there’s little chance that they will be able to bring everything together in such a short timeframe.
I hate it, but we’re likely not going to see football until 2021.
My concern, if the virus subsides during the summer like the flu does, what if it comes back in the late fall and winter months?
We just saw historic cancellations of winter/spring championships and while there will be more knowledge about this virus, there will not be a validated vaccine in 8 months.
Oh well, my unused season tickets will just be applied to the 2021 season if that happens.
If, and it is a huge IF, you can believe China, there cases are no longer increasing as dramatically. If we know they hid it for a month then maybe we can expect to start seeing a decline worldwide or at least in developed countries by around mid may or so. I don’t see any way to institute a spring practice but fall camps and the season starting on time seems pretty likely today. I believe all these things tge world is doing will work. Painful but stick to it and get the rebound going. Hopefully too many don’t lose their jobs over this and the fed govt will step up to help them.
China’s a bit different because a) they’ve probably been fudging numbers throughout this process and b) it’s a totalitarian, collective society that already exercises so much Big Brother control over its citizens that shutting down entire cities, raising up mass warehouse-style hospitals for isolation and literally welding apartment doors shut is a crude but dramatic response to this kind of crisis for which it is easily capable. The price is the freedom and dignity of its people, and the collateral damage that still occurs at which most Western advocates of liberty would probably recoil.
If kyle Trask can stay healthy and everyone gets basically the same amount prep or if its shortened. It may even benefit UF.Newman and all those new guys need time to get ready if they dont get it and say lose to both Bama and Aub. Unlikely but possible
Would bring em down to earth. And we’d actually have quality depth for the first time against kirby. Young depth but I’ll take that over the 6 or 7 82 83 84 rated type guys Mac signed mac signed with garbage
And absolutely no DT lol man was a clown that’s why Georgia way over blow those first 2 wins. We loaded up on DL and pass rushers plus Zach Carter Kyree Campbell back.
But man I hope everything gets back to normal and everyone gets properly prepped as every yr
The true and proper mindset of an SEC fan in these troubling times.
Why do I have to watch video clips of some fat dude shoving hot dogs down his throat every time I click on an article? Every. Freakin’. Article.
Come on. Set up a ‘I love to watch slobs eat disgusting amounts of food in close up’ website for any jacklegs that want to check that crap out, but spare the rest of us.
Out.
I’ve never seen that. Must be your settings.
Wondered about that too – just scroll fast! But then again, if this gets any crazier, we might be watching solo hotdog eating contests for entertainment! UNLESS we get the same deal that Italy got the other day – FREE PREMIUM PORNHUB!!
Nice article but UK was not planning on playing Terry Wilson in the spring game.
Hey ….why I everyone buying up all the toilet paper?…I guess this thing is literally scaring the sh** out of people…the thing that scares me is all politicians and the stupid fear mongering media…the politicians have their thumb stuck up their a** …and the media is trying as hard as they can to scare people into panic mode…
I had a nice supply but it got wiped out.
Wow. Rarely have I seen so much misinformation, inappropriate finger pointing, and conspiratorial thinking in one SDS thread. And that’s saying something.
I would like to throw in a little ray of sunshine. Given how easily the COVID-19 virus seems to get around, it is likely that by summer as much as 80 or 90 percent of the U.S. population will have been exposed. (Most of those folks will suffer mild symptoms or none at all.) This time around, this new virus is praying on a naive population, immunologically speaking. But of tje level of exposure in the US population meets predictions, the next wave of COVID-19 will find the sledding much tougher, as much if not most of the population has developed a pretty fair immunological response to its infectious nature. So I wouldn’t worry too much as COVID-19 revisits us next winter, fresh from its visit to the southern hemisphere. We will probably have a new crisis to worry about by then.
This place could be a case study on confirmation bias.
Spring football is history but summer practices should start on schedule and there should be no impact on the fall football season. Perhaps the NCAA will extend the 2020 summer practice schedule a bit.
According to Johns Hopkins, there are currently 2,952 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. Let’s assume the actual number is twice as high: 5,904. The actual number of cases is estimated to double roughly every 6 days. By this math, 58% of the U.S. population (193.5 million) would have been infected with the virus by mid-June.
The disease will run its course in most people within two weeks, so the actual number of people symptomatic at any given time, in the absolute worst case, would be less than one in three.
The goal of public policy is not to keep the virus from spreading, which is virtually impossible, but rather to slow the spread… to limit the impact on the healthcare system. Allowing for an average individual recovery period of about two weeks, the U.S. hospital system will be overwhelmed (not enough beds, masks, supplies, etc.) sometime in May if the spread is not slowed.
About 15-18% of the population is some combination of over age 70 and/or affected by some manner of respiratory condition. The specific problem is that if the hospital system becomes overwhelmed and members of this group becoe infected but can’t get adequate care, the virus can be fatal for them.
So regardless of your political views, wash your hands frequently and reduce your interactions with third parties for the next couple months.
On the positive side, this makes the season more unpredictable, which is terrific for college football. Maybe it won’t be Bama, GA, Ohio State and somebody else that gets into the playoffs. Maybe we will see Texas A&M and Florida in the SEC title game. Maybe some team from the Mountain West or MAC will pull off some major upset of the big boys. Maybe the kids that have essentially been playing football non stop since 8th grade will really enjoy their time off and come back with a new spring in their step. Consider the possibilities.
If the SEC had just hired the Derek Dooley Traveling Shower Discipline Road Show we could have avoided all this.
This story starts off with an untruth. We don’t necessarily have to get back to sports in a few weeks. If the covid-19 virus doesn’t dissipate as the weather warms up or mutates to a more dangerous or contagious form the present situation could become the new norm. Here’s hoping things don’t go that way, but we have to face reality. Either there is a lot we are NOT being told about this virus or the reaction to it is overblown.
Reading all the political comments. WOW, so many clueless people. Downright scary.