Is it safe to make plans for the college football season?
Despite the wide disparity in projections about how long the coronavirus will change our lives, and with the end of winter sports and all spring and summer games being at least postponed, a big question is if the air will come out of the balloon that is Carolina football.
Mack Brown has already said his staff is coaching the players to get ready for all possibilities. A full season with prolonged training camp to make up for spring practice; a partial season with only eight conference games being played; or maybe no season whatsoever.
We’ve had similar stoppages in play, well sort of. Major League Baseball seasons and the NBA schedule have both been shortened by strikes. We have had replacement players and officials in pro football due to ongoing union disagreements. The Tokyo Olympics have been delayed a full year. All these things will cost millions of bucks.
Bubba Cunningham and John Montgomery of the Rams Club co-signed a letter to UNC season ticket holders, emphasizing the need for caution and safety with optimism that Tar Heel teams would be back in action. The deadline for renewing season football tickets has been extended.
I believe pro football will be played in the fall because, well, it’s pro football and the NFL can give players the option to compete and the fans the option to attend at their own risk. I see the latter scenario where stadiums will be open to fans, who may want to wear masks and other PPE. But pro football is such a TV-driven sport that they could actually play the games in almost empty stadiums, with advertising on TV and radio costing more because those audiences will be larger.
Safety does come first, which is why colleges with responsibility for their student-athletes might not play even if the pros do. I guess they could compete in empty stadiums with strict safety measures for players, who all might be tested before the games each week.
Given the crisis, it’s hard to call it a bummer if Brown’s resurgent program had to wait a full year before showing its second act. But like everything else, the life of the virus controls that fate.
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