Paul Finebaum believes we’ll see Clemson football play this fall
The old foe of Clemson football in SEC Network Analyst Paul Finebaum has some optimistic words to say about the upcoming 2020 season.
Finebaum, who was pretty negative about the potential for a season just a month ago and beyond, has become increasingly more positive as we are headed down the stretch for the scheduled start of the season.
Though he still has some concerns, Finebaum made an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up! Monday morning and said he believes there’s a ‘very small’ chance that the other three Power-5 conferences- the ACC, Big 12 and SEC- would back down from their scheduled starts due to the backlash and PR battle the Big Ten is now facing.
"“This may give adrenaline to the other three conferences to move forward without being as careful as they need to be,” Finebaum said. “I know that sounds like a major statement, but they feel it. If you’re the Big 12, the ACC or the SEC, you’re feeling that you’re doing something great right now by playing college football, which may not be great at all. But the odds of any of those three backing down before we get closer to September 26 right now, I think, is very small because of the Big Ten’s PR nightmare.”"
Finebaum went on to say that it wasn’t just the Big Ten’s decision to cancel that made the PR nightmare, but how it was done. The conference released its schedule just to turn around and officially call it off less than a week later. There has been backlash from parents, players and even a University of Michigan medical expert on the decision.
The next couple of weeks are going to be huge for Clemson football, and the rest of the conferences for that matter
At this point, the only thing that may be able to stop College Football from happening are college students themselves.
There have already been reported clusters at several universities across the nation and those ‘spikes’ could be the one road block that these colleges simply can’t overcome in terms of the optics battle.
The plan in the ACC, Big 12 and SEC is to play and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to back down from that decision, but there’s still a long road ahead of us and anything can happen.
Things can change on a dime and while it’s certainly looking hopeful we’ll see Clemson football this fall, there’s still an uphill battle to getting to that point.