The Board of Governors may have saved football.

Despite widespread reaction to the contrary, the BOG’s decision that going to UNC this semester either in-person or online will cost the same may have clarified a few things.

One, how much revenue UNC will lose from students who won’t pay the full ride for digital learning and take a gap semester or year off instead. And, two, how much smaller the on-campus student body will be and easier to control the spread of COVID 19.

Those numbers may result in layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts we knew were coming, although Roy and Wanda Williams’ gift of $600,000 to fund spring sports is generous and much-needed help.   A residual benefit may be to athletics, particularly football. With fewer students on campus, athletes can be more easily contained within the bubbles their coaches create.

The jocks can practice, work out on their own and take on-line classes without having to wander away from the athletic complex and mingle. The forthcoming health and safety protocols from the ACC could be easier to administer and comply with.

If football can be played under safer conditions, the revenue from TV contracts and any gate receipts, concessions and advertising would offset more severe losses if all sports programs went dark.

That means some Olympic teams, which are supported largely by football, may compete. And it gives hope that basketball can go on under the same or similar circumstances, as well.

When the pandemic hit, most college presidents agreed that varsity sports should not be played unless the campuses were fully open. That still may be true to some extent, and if so the latest BOG mandate makes for a great compromise.

From near or far, students, alumni and fans can cheer on their favorite teams, boosting spirits that this dreadful disease has sucked out of us. And that, in turn, may reinvigorate gifts back to the schools that will help them all dig out of whatever financial woes are to come.

 

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