College football needs to set a date to implement Plans B or C.

Mack Brown said last week that he wished coaches stopped talking publicly about any scenarios that, in light of the pandemic, are still in question. Sure, football teams can start preparing like practice and the games are coming, but the question is when and how.

That’s why the sport could use a commissioner to announce whether the season is going to be played in full, and under which circumstances, partially or postponed completely until the spring. And between now and then, make some “fun” alternative plans.

And isn’t it apparent that one plan won’t fit all. Penn State coach James Franklin came out this week and said the Big Ten should play even if all the schools in the Big Ten can’t or won’t. Now, that seems a little ridiculous, when you could come up with some cool ideas.

If the schedules need to be altered, it will be for reasons of safety for the players, coaches, game personnel and fans. And that will be dictated by if the campuses are safe enough to open this fall.

While the chancellors, presidents and Boards all Zoom, it makes sense for the athletic directors and coaches to begin talking privately among themselves to discuss a potential Plan B. There will be money from some tickets and lots of TV, but let’s play for love of the game.

I still like the regional approach, turning states or contiguous states into “college divisions” to mirror what the NFL does in playing home-and-home with opponents within their geography. For this one year, it seems like a better idea than turning the Big Ten into the Big Five.

Let’s get seven FBS and FCS programs in North Carolina to play home-and-home against each other for the first true state championship that Mack loves to talk about. I could take UNC playing Duke, State, Wake Forest, App State, ECU and NC A&T in a 12-game home-and-away slate. Wouldn’t Duke, State and Wake all love playing twice the same season!

Franklin’s Nittany Lions could form the POWV league with Pitt, Temple, Ohio State, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Marshall. The MVD league could be Maryland, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Tech, James Madison, Old Dominion and Delaware.

It’s different, but it puts love of the game first.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Maye's Mission
With an upgraded receiver room and a massive target on his back, Drake Maye is poised for a hugely important 2026 campaign.
Chansky's Notebook: Fool Me Once...
Little Kool-Aid will be consumed by Carolina fans before the noon kickoff from Dublin. Fool me once but not again. It is a great trip to Ireland for the Tar Heels fans who bought the plane tickets and hotel rooms to tour the Emerald Isle and see if their team is any better than Bill […]
Chansky's Notebook: Getting Filthy Rich-er
There are seven teams with $40 million plus rosters and five others just behind the tally from college football as the 2026 season begins. The SEC leads payrolls (LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee), with four from the Big Ten (Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and USC), one from the ACC (Miami) and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Power to the People!
Wednesday's announcement of a two-year, two-game series between UNC and NC State in Greensboro sent a clear message.
Chansky's Notebook: The Five Stages
Chapelboro's Michael Koh breaks down the stunning news of Seth Trimble's commitment to Louisville via the transfer portal.
Chansky's Notebook: Carolina Conundrum
There is no question Mike Lombardi will lose his job as football general manager and leave Chapel Hill, writes Art Chansky.
Chansky's Notebook: The One Who Got Away
Mack Brown was a very good football coach. His father was a high school coach in Tennessee, and his older brother Watson preceded him into mid-major positions. The peripatetic Brown held nine assistant jobs and one as a head coach in 15 years before he was 35. That included being the athletic director at Tulane […]
Chansky's Notebook: The Cost of Business
Carolina has released its salary structure for the 2026-27 men’s basketball season, and right now it has to be a game of wait and see. Mike Malone is making $7.5 million in his first college head coaching season and his new top assistant Chuck Martin is making $500,000. Here is where it gets interesting. The […]
Chansky's Notebook: Code of Conduct
When he left Carolina as chancellor in 2024, Kevin Guskiewicz was dogged by policy confrontations with the UNC Board of Trustees. Guskiewicz found himself in the same position after only two years at Michigan State despite strong support from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Spartans’ Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo. He visited […]
Chansky's Notebook: What Happened to Henri?
Blame Henri Veesaar's baffling slide in the NBA Draft on the muddled way the league and its agents do business.
›