The Clemson football team got nine practices in during the spring before all activities were canceled, but could that lead to extended preseason time?
The 2020 Clemson football spring practice sessions were cut short due to the growing concerns of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.
Clemson University made the announcement that all instruction for classes will be conducted online until April 5. The University said that all events, programs and activities had been suspended until that date, as well.
Clemson Athletics made it official over the weekend that the annual Clemson football spring game would be suspended.
Keep in mind that this is all speculation…
Though there’s still a chance that the NCAA could allow spring practices to resume at a later point in April or May, the likelihood is that all College Football programs are done with spring practice and won’t be returning to any kind of action until things have improved and classes are back to normal.
With that being said, the NCAA could make a decision that would help football programs around the country make up for lost time in the spring.
Though the organization is still monitoring the situation closely and likely won’t be making any decisions any time soon, one thing that could be in the best interest of the athletes and the programs would be to extend the preseason period.
By that, I don’t mean push back games.
What I mean is potentially opening up fall camp a little earlier than normal. Perhaps, the organization provides more leniency and allows programs the opportunity to have more practice time ahead of the season than what is normally allowed during the preseason.
That, in turn, would make for a safer football season and allow programs a chance to install their play-book and schemes without fear of running out of time and being unprepared before the season begins.
The NCAA has made no official statement, but it would certainly benefit Clemson football to have some of that practice time back once the pandemic has come to close, though it’s certainly unclear at this point when that will be.
Maybe we could even see a public scrimmage in August to make up for lost time? It’s all just speculation right now, but these are all things that should be considered by the NCAA moving forward.