College Football Coaches Have Started To Expect Their Season To Start In Spring 2021 Instead Of The Fall

CBS Sports – Time is running out for the 2020 college football season to start on time, which is leading many to wonder whether the entire season will ultimately be moved a few months to the spring of 2021. The first indicator of that possibility is expected to come this Wednesday from the Ivy League after the conference stated it plans to announce its final decision regarding fall sports and college football this week.

That decision could set a trend for the rest of the college football landscape, and it could be a major one. Multiple coaches within the Ivy League have told The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman and Nicole Auerbach “that they expect Wednesday’s announcement to be that the league is moving all fall sports, including football, to spring 2021.” Forbes Magazine previously reported there is a 98% chance Ivy League football will be moved to the spring.

Should the Ivy League follow through with this scenario, it would be notable for two reasons. It would be the first Division I conference to make such a sweeping change.

This report of the Ivy League’s football rescheduling comes around the same time that Harvard has started to take lumps for charging their exact same tuition despite the 2020-21 school year taking place entirely online:

NEW: Harvard will hold all courses online for undergraduate and graduate students for the 2020-2021 academic year. https://t.co/PJ5MHZcFBs pic.twitter.com/nFYhKaL6cy

— ABC News (@ABC) July 6, 2020

Granted, the prestigious and mostly intelligent Ivy League schools may have a slightly different world view than, oh I don’t know, the SEC and their billions of dollars in TV deals. But with COVID spread at arguably higher levels than it’s ever been, it’s hard to imagine college campuses operating with business as usual at any time during the 2020-21 school year. And if there are no students on campus, it’s hard to see how you can justify forcing unpaid students into athletic competition even if their future interests mutually align.

This is an unprecedented situation for a lot of players. Your Trevor Lawrence tier of guys likely would be entirely unaffected if a college football season didn’t happen (and it’s hard to imagine him playing a Spring season that’d be so close to the NFL Draft). But all of the other guys who could work their way up the draft board and begin the fight for a roster spot are likely infinitely more screwed. Could it end up like this shortened MLB season portends with only the “working class” of players opting in for the chance to move up the food chain? There’s a lot of questions to answer, particularly for those guys who’d qualify for the 2021 NFL Draft.

All I know is this: Be careful with those college football futures tickets. Out of all the most popular sports, it seems like college football could be deeply affected whether the season plays or not.

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