Clemson Football: NCAA issues waiver to allow season to start in August

CLEMSON, SOUTH CAROLINA - JUNE 10: A view of the ticket office at Clemson Memorial Stadium on the campus of Clemson University on June 10, 2020 in Clemson, South Carolina. The campus remains open in a limited capacity due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
CLEMSON, SOUTH CAROLINA - JUNE 10: A view of the ticket office at Clemson Memorial Stadium on the campus of Clemson University on June 10, 2020 in Clemson, South Carolina. The campus remains open in a limited capacity due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Clemson football fans are waiting to see what will happen to the 2020 CFB season

While Clemson football fans, along with the rest of the country, anxiously await the start of the scheduled College Football season, there seems to be movement on the horizon.

Despite many who have said the season will be canceled, the NCAA has issued a blanket waiver to allow all FBS schools to start their season as early as August 29, according to reports from 247 Sports’ Brandon Marcello.

The waiver was issued as a way to give teams more time to complete their games and flexibility when it came to scheduling as all many conferences try to figure out what they’re exactly going to do.

While that doesn’t mean that football will start on that date, it still can be a sign that the plan from all officials currently is to play.

Could we see the start of Clemson football season moved up?

Of course, this is the next logical question any Tiger fan would ask.

At this point, it doesn’t seem that the ACC would be interested in moving up its season. The most-discussed proposals (10-and-1 plan) would actually have the season starting Sept. 5- as normal- or Sept. 12- a week later than the original start date.

In some ways, at least in my opinion, it would make a lot of sense for the conference to move up its start date if protocols are in place. If you start a week ahead of time, it gives you more flexibility to reschedule games should they have to be postponed. Perhaps you can build in two conference-wide byes where teams can still play games if the scheduled game couldn’t take place as planned.

That being said, the conference is likely looking to move the season back (at least a week or two) to provide more time for protocols and procedures to be in place and for the ever-changing situation to be more closely monitored.

The ACC is scheduled to have two big meetings– one on July 29 and one on August 5. Those two meetings will tell us a lot about the viability and plans of the season and what Clemson football fans should expect as we move forward.

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