What College Football Analysts are saying about the likelihood of 2020 season
There has been a ton of news related to the 2020 College Football season and it just seems from every good piece, there are two other bad pieces.
Just in the last week, we’ve seen Rutgers shut down its program due to a positive test. We’ve seen players from both the Big Ten and Pac-12 band together to come up with a list of demands through The Players’ Tribune. We’ve seen the Big Ten and Pac-12 announce their official schedule for the start of their College Football season.
We’ve seen the NCAA Board of Governors pass the decision on whether or not to play fall championships to the Division Boards. Division III announced that it was canceling fall championships while Division 1 announced that it would be handing off the decision to the Division 1 Council. We also saw UConn decide to cancel its football season.
And that’s not all by any stretch of the imagination, either.
All of that being said and looked at under a microscope, here are some of the latest comments as it relates to the 2020 College Football season from national insiders.
Brett McMurphy
A little more than two weeks ago, The Stadium’s Brett McMurphy said he believes there is about a 75 percent chance we will not play College Football in the fall. McMurphy is an analyst that has had many sources inside the world of CFB and said this decision will ultimately be made by University Presidents.
It should be noted, at least at this point, that University Presidents have moved forward with the idea of playing.
Kirk Herbstreit
The last time Kirk Herbstreit spoke on the College Football season was about two weeks ago when he said he would be ‘surprised‘ if the season was canceled. He expects to see play- at least in some capacity- but it will be interesting to see what his take is here in the next week or so.
It has also been noted that Herbstreit could become one of the analyst for Monday Night Football if CFB is canceled.
Paul Finebaum
Paul Finebaum has gone back and forth on his thoughts of a season. Finebaum was convinced there wouldn’t be a season earlier this summer, but recently changed his tune with a more positive outlook a little more than a week ago.
On an appearance with WJOX- 94.5- in Birmingham, Finebaum spoke about the SEC’s most recent announcement and scheduled start date of Sept. 26.
"“And it to me, it’s a very cautious, it’s a very cautious announcement,” Finebaum added. “It’s also a blinking light that this season is not guaranteed. And a week ago, I really was convinced that we would get started – maybe not on time, but within reason. This gives them a lot of time to take a good long look at what’s happening around the country.”"
Finebaum is basically still unsure and likely changes his leaning daily as to what we’ll see in terms of a College Football season.
Pete Thamel,
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel has been convinced for the past few months that we won’t have a season and he took to his website to write another column about why the season won’t be played.
"“The bottom line is that when the autopsy of the 2020 college football season is conducted, it will state the obvious about COVID-19’s role as saboteur. The spiral to get there – and it will be a classically disjointed process – has begun. The defections, cancellations and health concerns, taken individually, haven’t been enough to cancel the season. Collectively, they’ve created a new level of concern at the presidential level that will ultimately set the course for the sport. It’s too early to declare the 2020 football season over. But the path to cancellation appears more obvious than the path to any type of functional and recognizable season. The beginning of the end is upon us, getting closer as the drumbeat of the news cycle grows louder and louder.”"
David Pollack
While Pollack hasn’t spoken nationally in a couple of weeks, he has remained optimistic about the season.
"“I’m very optimistic,” said Pollack. “ I know there’s a lot of pessimism going on and you’re going to find plenty of negativity. All you gotta do is look for it.”"
Pollack said that College Football can learn from the NBA, MLB and even the NFL as it gets started with Training Camp and then make adjustments to safely play the sport this fall.
It will be interesting to see what happens when it’s all said and done, but it’s certain that the vast major of analysts aren’t positive when it comes to the future of the sport this season.