College football is making Plans B, C and maybe D.

When Big Ten schools start talking openly about what becomes of the 2020 football season, that is ample reason to sit up and listen. Here’s what anonymous sources on one Big Ten campus are saying:

Regarding the escalating cases of COVID-19 across the country, “No one is excited to travel. No one wants to get on a plane. No one wants to stay at a hotel.”

This is coming from one assistant coach who is especially alarmed because in his words, “We’re football coaches and supposedly we’re all fire-and-brimstone, rub-dirt on it, run-through-brick-wall personality types, but there is very real concern about our exposure, taking it home to our families, spreading it through our communities and impacting our loved ones.”

At this point, no athletic directors or coaches are talking on the record about various options being discussed that could impact not only on the coming season but recruiting for 2021 and beyond.

Big Ten schools, which have a more contiguous footprint than the ACC, are considering alteration or total cancellation of the schedules due to a lack of leadership from the conference and the NCAA, with regard to coordinating safety guidelines for games.

Obviously, other leagues and their schools are having the same conversations and complaints and are pondering alternative schedules that eliminate air travel and overnight stays and include opponents within a four-hour bus ride, teams leaving the morning of the game and returning right after.

Home-and-home series and games against closer schools may replace far-away foes. They all want to play football in some form or fashion, but with the virus spreading more than fading, new proposals include North Carolina, which has four Power 5 schools and at least two others within an easy bus ride.

Last time UNC and Duke played twice in one season was 1943. That was during World War II. This a war of a different kind.

 

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