Tuesday could be D-Day for college football as we know it
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott.
Option 3 – Kick the football season can down the road
Move fall sports to the spring. The Ivy League has already done it. Who knows, the Harvard-Yale game could be the sporting event of March.
Fallout
This option is the biggest compromise. Delaying until the spring isn’t the worst idea. Then again, there are no guarantees that pandemic conditions will have changed by then. Power-5 schools might not love it, but a few serious breakouts at member schools could force their hand.
How the television network partners would handle the delay is a different discussion entirely. It could cost schools money, but not nearly as much as a cancellation.
Option 4 – Pull the plug, a.k.a. the Nuclear option
This would be the outright cancellation of all fall 2020 sports. Remember, all spring sports such as baseball and softball were terminated less than six months ago.
Fallout
Set the threat level to DEFCON 1 because war is coming. Power-5 conferences want to play football this fall. They have big dollar television contracts that pay their members somewhere between $25M-–$50M annually. Keep in mind, the NCAA does not regulate postseason games or the FBS Championship.
If their vote is to cancel fall sports, the ACC, Big Ten Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC can tell the NCAA to stick it and play anyway. As a matter of fact, in that scenario, they probably would. What gets lost in the shuffle is that the divide mentioned earlier will grow exponentially.
For example, an FCS school such as North Dakota State could make millions by playing a game at a Power-5 school. Because those games are so lucrative, sometimes it’s enough money to keep their entire athletics program afloat for the year. Not to mention the exposure they get by playing against a big school.
One sign that this might happen went down last week when the Big 12 canceled their virtual media day.
What do you think will happen on Tuesday? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.