What are the realistic alternatives for ACC football in 2020?

Well, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 did what had been widely speculated in calling off their fall sports calendars for all 14 members. The announcement was greeted with confusion. With athletes unionizing in both conferences, was there also fear of a strike before games?

ESPN voice Kirk Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, appeared most shocked that his old league threw in the towel this early. And he reported that the decision was greeted with widespread objections from players, coaches and athletic directors in the Big Ten.

Herbstreit laid it in the lap of new Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, which was surprising because it is well known that such decisions are not made without the approval of school chancellors or presidents who either followed science or feared a players’ walk-out.

After the Pac 12 followed later in the day with the same news, the ACC, SEC and Big 12 maintained they would play this fall. If those leagues still want to play, here are their choices:

Start the season as rescheduled and see if they lose enough players to COVID-19 that they have to cancel certain games.

Delay the start of the season to see how the campus infections are doing, which could be a barometer.

Let member schools make their own decisions, based on where they are on the COVID map. For example, Florida and Georgia are still hot spots, while North Carolina is not.

Begin the season with possibility of playing five or six games, take December off to get their players well and then finish in late January and February after the NFL regular season ends.

Revamp their schedules again to play every other week, factoring in the quarantine timelines so players who test positive may miss only one game.

Or they could follow the Big Ten and Pac-12 and plan to play their seasons this spring, which may be the biggest gamble of them all.

At this point, it is still anyone’s guess what all three will do

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