There’s a big difference between college and college athletics.

Mack Brown held a ZOOM conference Monday and said all he knows about the forthcoming football season, which isn’t much. No one has told him that his team can’t practice in August or won’t open play at Central Florida on September 4. At least, not yet.

Since the resumption of college sports is out of the hands of coaches, athletic directors and even university chancellors or presidents, there exists a giant disconnect right now between campuses reopening with safe social distancing guidelines and 300-pound football players crashing into each other on the practice field.

Perhaps Governor Roy Cooper can provide that clearance, but you can bet it won’t come without the complete blessing of state and national health officials and under which circumstances.

Here we are on May 12, with the expected date for fall sports athletes to return to campus about 6-8 weeks away. They can certainly hold meetings, lift weights and eat training table meals with safe distancing, just as regular students will be able to do the same in modified classroom and cafeteria settings.

But who is going to approve football players getting into full pads and beginning contact, swapping sweat, on the dog days of summer? Regardless of what some anxious coaches are saying, there isn’t a university leader or Board of Trustees willing to give that go-ahead. Even with billions to lose, the NCAA bosses say safety comes first. Without a vaccine and with the virus still rampant, what will change their minds?

With so much still unknown about transmission and treatment of COVID 19, amateur athletics in this country remains under lock and key. The NFL can, and probably will, play but it is a different animal – an entertainment industry with money to afford maximum testing and offering play-at-your-own-risk options.

Despite another pronouncement from the White House, do you see nationwide testing being available to hundreds of players by the start of college football practice? And with the welfare of athletes being paramount, it seems nothing short of that can end the college sports lockout.

Mack Brown isn’t saying, but he has to be wondering.

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