No one is entirely sure how long the ongoing sports stoppage will last nationwide, but there is definitely some contingency planning going on behind the scenes about football season.
Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips admitted that while he couldn’t be sure what would happen, there was definitely a chance that the 2020 college football season might not happen as scheduled.
“There’s absolutely a possibility it may not happen — or any of our fall sports,” Phillips told WBBM Newsradio’s George Ofman. “Maybe we’ll play 12 games, maybe you won’t be able to play any. Maybe there’s a reduced schedule you can have. Everybody’s trying to figure this out as we go along.
“There will be a college football season only if and when the medical experts, CDC, state regional and national leaders declare it to be safe. And it won’t be made by a football coach, an athletic director or a university president.”
That last quote is important, because it applies across the country. Nobody is going to play unless they think it’s safe to do so, even though some coaches have tried to make that decision themselves. Much depends on what things look like in three to four months, and right now, it’s too soon to make any confident prediction.
