Chansky’s Notebook: Looking Worse?

What are the options for Carolina if the football season falls apart?

A new surge of COVID-19, which may be caused by a recently discovered mutation in the novel coronavirus, is leaving college football 2020 in more jeopardy than ever. According to the Washington Post, the mutation does not make contracting the virus more deadly, just more contagious.

With Clemson now reporting more than 30 positive tests and other schools on the same trajectory, what will college football do if the players’ and coaches’ health remains the number one priority?

UNC seems to be handling the reentry of football players exactly right. Mack Brown and his staff have been Zooming and conference-calling all summer, emphasizing to the players that one misstep could ground the whole team.

So, instead of players in South Carolina and Louisiana ringing in the summer with irresponsible lake and beach bashes, the Tar Heels have been staying at home and being careful to wear face-coverings and social distance when they do go out. Thus, there is a chance Carolina could go through the training camp with a totally negative team.

But what happens when they must get on one, two or three planes and fly to Orlando to play Central Florida in a state where the virus continues to spike? And how about playing indoors at the Mercedes-Benz Dome in Atlanta against Auburn the following week? There seems like a growing chance those two games will be altered in some way.

Will it come down to what we talked about in the spring, playing a more confined schedule at home or at schools where the forthcoming ACC health protocol can be followed and enforced to the max? Maybe an eight- or even a six-game season with some fans who go to stadiums that are spiffy clean and where families can sit together but apart from other fans.

If the existing schedule does fall apart, we might have those home-and-home series with Duke, State and Wake Forest after all, and perhaps single games with App State, East Carolina, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

There may not be ACC division races, championship games or bowls. But there will still be football played and games we can watch, in-person or on TV. I’ll take that.

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