After months of speculation and debate, college football is now confronted with the practicalities of the calendar – will they or won’t they be playing …
After months of speculation and debate, college football is now confronted with the practicalities of the calendar – will they or won’t they be playing this fall? To the strong objection of some of the game’s most prominent coaches, rumors began circulating on Monday that the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences will be postponing their seasons until the spring. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh released a statement pleading with officials to base their decision on facts – not feelings, citing statistics on how the school and its administration have managed and contained the virus. « We have developed a great prototype for how we can make this work and provide the opportunity for players to play. If you are transparent and follow the rules, this is how it can be done.” President Trump jumped into the fray, tweeting a succinct three-word statement: “Play College Football!” Earlier in the day, the nation’s chief executive tweeted, « The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay. » College football is a time-honored tradition, of course, replete with pomp and pageantry dating back to the mid-19th century, but it’s also a big business today. Economists project that a full season cancellation would have a devastating and far-reaching $4 billion impact not just on the universities themselves but also on the countless entities who rely on the gridiron engine to make their living.
