Football in the spring, baseball in the minors? I don’t think so.

Granted, administrators of professional and college athletics have to do something when they meet behind closed doors. But the two latest plans they threw against the wall won’t really stick.

Major League Baseball is proposing a plan to keep games away from all 30 ballparks for the entire season. Sure, they want to start playing sooner than later, but even a half-schedule is better than that. MLB is tossing around sending 15 teams each, a mixture from the American and National Leagues, to Florida and Arizona to play the season at two minor league complexes, with the winners from each meeting in what would be a weird World Series, somewhere.

And, oh yes, for the time being no fans in any of those small stadia. Granted, not having a season would be even weirder, but why not wait until the virus is under control and the healthcare system is no longer overloaded, then play an abbreviated schedule back home?

So, I can’t imagine the spring training sites will work. But what about playing the college football season during the spring of 2021?

ESPN reported yesterday that the NCAA is actually thinking about that, with games starting in February and ending with the playoffs in May and June. Then take the rest of June and July off and play the 2021 fall season? So, both of those concepts demonstrate how much the current health crisis has turned the entire world upside down.

A week or so ago, I penned an idea of regionalizing college football within contiguous states, making up their own schedules and their own rules about who can play and who can attend the games.

For example, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia could have their ten Football Bowl Subdivision schools play nine-game regular season that the ADs and coaches from all schools put together, the state governments set the health regulations about who can attend the games and the ACC figures out how to televise every game.

That makes more sense than playing football in the spring and 30 Major League Baseball teams playing in minor league parks.

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