What’s To Come For College Football With Covid-19 Still Looming
As we have now weathered about three months worth of social distancing, mask wearing, and hopefully improved hygiene, we still do not know what this will mean for college football season.
Schools lost spring workout time. Now players are reporting for summer workouts in a phased approach at some schools like South Alabama. But with the season fast approaching in less than three months, what will we be facing?
On the extremes, we have people who think that there won’t be a college football season at all, and others think that the season will go on just like normal. Then you have any number of in between scenarios where maybe it’s a shortened season, reduced number of bowl games, conference schedule only. The list could keep going on and on.
What could be a sign of things to come may have happened in the NFL today. It was announced today that the first six to eight rows of seats, including on-field suites, will be off-limits for fans. They will be blocked off to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 from fans to players. In addition, the NFL is going to allow the teams to sell camera-visible signage in those areas.
So at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, for instance, the school would put a Jag logo tarp on seats in the endzone. The NFL will allow teams to do that with the first six to eight rows of seats in the stadiums, but they can also sell and put ads on them this season to make up for lost revenue.
Will this same kind of decision be made in the College ranks?
Will fans who purchased the prime season tickets near the sideline be able to sit there this season? Will the students be down close to the opposing team yelling in their ear?
If social distancing is necessary for football game attendance, will it be reduced 50% capacity? South Alabama has already let it be known that it will be based on Season Ticket holders first and if that is not enough, then your priority points will be the next determining factor for attendance.
Beyond that the revenue for many schools is largely determined by their football programs. But sometimes what is lost is the revenue generated by football for the cities that the colleges are located.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said that the loss of a college football season in Tuscaloosa could be $2 Billion. The city was losing $600,000 a week during the spring while the campus was closed. The loss of an entire football season could be devastating to the city, but it could be a possibility.
Football players have started to report to campuses across the nation. The two largest programs in the state, the University of Alabama and Auburn University, have had players test positive for Covid-19 since going back to campus. Clemson announced 23 players test positive in their first test for Covid-19. Then in the last week another 21 football players tested positive including two football staffers (not limited to coaches).
South Alabama is not releasing how many players and staff test positive for Covid-19. Mobile became the state-wide hot-spot for Covid-19 cases early in the pandemic. While Montgomery has overtaken Mobile for the total number of positive infection cases in the state, Mobile remains the county with the most deaths from the virus.
I think the University should be releasing this information to be fully transparent. I know the University has a brand new stadium to start paying for this fall and they don’t want anything to cause season ticket sales to slow, but this information should be released not only for the fans but also for the students on that will be coming back to campus this fall.
WKRG’s Robby Baker spoke with coach Steve Campbell and shared a video showing the disinfecting of the weight room between workouts. Campbell spoke about the testing that occurred before any of the staff and players were allowed to come back to campus, but they have not and say they will not release any information concerning anyone testing positive. Other schools have, why won’t USA release those numbers?
Share with us your thoughts. Do you think USA should release numbers of any positive infections? What do you think the 2020 football season will look like? Will you be coming to the games? Will you attend games if you have to wear a mask?