The NFL has some contingency plans in place for "if" the Coronavirus is still a factor (which is kind of laughable if only because they are only thinking about their economic interests). So for now they are marching to the beat of opening training camps, and business as usual with packed stadiums starting in late summer.
The contingency plans call for pushing back the season a few weeks, or reduced capacity at stadiums. But that's reportedly as far as they've gotten. They're just wishing things away. Just remember that these billionaire Owners can suck up a loss of revenue for a time if they have to.
The nfl typically resumes sometime in late July / early August, but doesn't start their preseason until about 3 weeks later; and don't start playing "real" games until after Labor Day. So their schedule could be tweaked perhaps.
College football is coming at it a little differently. For them, the single most profitable thing major universities have is football. From gate receipts, to booster donations, to big tv contracts, this is the money maker that schools rely on building their budgets around.
But it's clear (and the ncaa has emphasized this) that unless the campuses are more or less open to all students, that football shouldn't happen. And so the bigger conferences (especially in the south) are pushing to get campuses open so they can get the football teams up and running.
But there is absolutely no consensus on when they might start play, or if they'd even allow fans to come to games. While students do make up a portion of these fans, most of them are alumni who travel back to their college campuses to attend the games.
So while you maybe could control testing the student and student-athlete population to keep the virus at bay, having 5 or so Saturday's with tens of thousands of outsiders coming on campus could be a disaster. But these are paying customers who often make a donation back to the university, so you do not want to alienate them. Especially in these weird times where some would argue that the university is taking this too seriously, or not seriously enough.
There is talk of maybe delaying the start of the season into the spring semester, which very well might be the best option they can come up with.
But who knows at this point what is going to happen?
The ncaa has the first scheduled game on August 29th, and usually gives about a 4 week build up time. But since spring football didn't happen, where coaches start building for he following year, they want an extra 2 weeks to practice. That would require athletes back on campus in mid July, or late July if they follow their regular schedule.
Except that most universities will remain closed until the first or second week of August. Can the student-athletes come back early?
And some (all schools in California) won't be open at all in the fall...so I guess California schools won't play football?
It's bizarre.
