Ohio State AD Gene Smith ‘not 100 percent comfortable’ with playing college football

Ohio State director of athletics Gene Smith stands on the field prior to the NCAA football game against the Michigan State Spartans at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021. Photo Credit: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

One way to tell where college football season may stand right now is to look for the comments of some of the sport’s biggest power brokers.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith is one of those people. He said Wednesday that, as of now, he’s still wary of playing college football, but added that his feelings could change.

Gene Smith on his comfort level playing football this year: "I'm not 100 percent comfortable yet. That's one of the things with this process, you constantly get educated. I'm hopeful that I'm going to reach 100 percent comfort, but I'm not there yet."

— billlandis25 (@BillLandis25) May 20, 2020

Of course, this depends entirely on who you ask. Some are extremely confident that there will be football in the fall.

Smith may be hinting at the most realistic answer right now: we just don’t know. It depends on a lot of variables that are hard to predict. His current wariness is certainly understandable.