Three Clemson football games that could be canceled, and three replacements for those games
The coronavirus is still running rampant across the United States and that could affect the 2020 Clemson football season in many ways.
As of now, College Football officials have left all options on the table.
From playing games at their regularly-scheduled date with fans to playing an entire season without fans to even postponing or cancelling the season altogether, there are plenty more questions than answers.
That being said, we are seeing a number of smaller College Football programs begin to cancel their season and that could be the case with several more, especially in the lower FBS and FCS ranks, before we ever even begin.
Many Power-5 leagues have members who may choose to opt out of the season and there are questions as to what things will look like among conferences as a whole. Even if schools don’t opt out of the season and we begin play, there could be a potential for a cancellation or forfeit based on a program’s ability to field a team following testing.
As a result, we could see programs rescheduling games or even adding a new opponent at a fairly quick rate.
Here are three games that could potentially be cancelled on the 2020 Clemson football schedule and three possible replacements for those games, as well.
Game One: vs. Akron (September 19)
Potential Replacement: Ohio State Buckeyes
Clemson is scheduled to play the Akron Zips during Week 3 of the season, but there certainly could be a situation where we see teams across the MAC decide to cancel, or potentially postpone, their season. This especially would make sense because of the fact that TV deals aren’t near as lucrative for Group of 5 leagues as they are for the Power-5.
If that’s the case, several Power-5 programs could be left trying to fill that week with a game and you don’t have to look any further than the Ohio State Buckeyes to see a perfect match.
Ohio State is currently scheduled to play MAC-opponent Buffalo at home and this would be a perfect way for the two programs to go ahead and meet on the field early in the season and add a huge amount of intrigue to the week from a national perspective.
Game Two. vs. Syracuse (October 24)
Potential Replacement: Duke
Syracuse is on campus and preparing for the season, but there’s a large amount of physical distance between Syracuse and Clemson, especially right now.
New York currently has a policy in place that requires anyone coming from several states- including South Carolina- to quarantine for 14 days before they can go out in the state. Obviously, the hope would be that this changes between now and when the two programs play in late October, but you never know.
I don’t believe we’ll see this game cancelled if a season is played, just because of the fact that these two teams are in the same conference, but if you’re going to see an in-conference game cancelled, this seems like the one most likely just because of the geographical distance between the two schools.
Clemson could find another ACC opponent in Duke (a close neighbor who is currently scheduled to have a bye week) to play if they needed and wanted to.
Of course, out of the three games, this one seems the least likely. While the conference could have programs sit out or have geographical differences, it would seem that there would be a uniformed decision made before things like this happened. Still, crazier things have happened in 2020.
Game Three: vs. The Citadel (November 14)
Potential Replacement: Auburn
The other ‘low level opponent’ for the 2020 Clemson football season is The Citadel.
While there may be a way for FCS teams to play their season with limited capacity fans and continue to play games (after all the most money they make is when they travel to FBS programs and receive large pay days), we’ve already seen one program in Morehouse who has cancelled their season.
The Citadel would likely be one of the last FCS programs to cancel their season and would only do so if they had to, but if it did come to that, a perfect replacement could be Auburn.
The two programs are relatively close by in geographical location and Auburn could be looking to replace a game against UMass. If Auburn did play their game with UMass, another option could be Alabama (who is scheduled to play UT Martin).
Obviously, none of us want to see any games cancelled or rescheduled this season, but this is an ever-changing landscape and we have to be prepared for anything. The most important aspect is keeping the athletes safe and then we can go from there.