Impact of a Spring Football Season

#1

SNAFU

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#1
"Having a spring season comes with a cluster of issues. What if the NFL doesn’t move its draft date? That means that every single player with a first-round grade for the would skip the season. Who would play a college season and miss the opportunity to get drafted? Nobody. Though the NFL has said it’s not interested in moving its draft date, there is still a possibility things could change if a spring season is college football’s only option.

There are so many NFL prospects in college football who could stand to improve their draft stock and would maybe play a spring season if the NFL Draft were moved back to June. But if the NFL keeps it in April, why would any draftable prospect play and delay their payday for a full calendar year unless the NCAA alters its rules to have it make sense for players who play a spring season to get selected? I think there would be more than 100 players who would decide not to play, which would decimate the most talented rosters like Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama. All of those teams have double-digit draft-eligible players. But if the NFL keeps it in April, why would any draftable prospect play a spring season that began, for argument’s sake, in March and continued through May or June?"- Ari Wasserman, The Athletic
 
#4
#4
I think there would be more than 100 players who would decide not to play, which would decimate the most talented rosters like Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama.

That-Sounds-Good-Ill-Have-That-Dumb-and-Dumber.gif


I know I am being a little bit of a D*$% but for this season it really only hurts our adversaries. A year to get a new QB ready might actually help us.
 
#5
#5
"Having a spring season comes with a cluster of issues. What if the NFL doesn’t move its draft date? That means that every single player with a first-round grade for the would skip the season. Who would play a college season and miss the opportunity to get drafted? Nobody. Though the NFL has said it’s not interested in moving its draft date, there is still a possibility things could change if a spring season is college football’s only option.

There are so many NFL prospects in college football who could stand to improve their draft stock and would maybe play a spring season if the NFL Draft were moved back to June. But if the NFL keeps it in April, why would any draftable prospect play and delay their payday for a full calendar year unless the NCAA alters its rules to have it make sense for players who play a spring season to get selected? I think there would be more than 100 players who would decide not to play, which would decimate the most talented rosters like Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama. All of those teams have double-digit draft-eligible players. But if the NFL keeps it in April, why would any draftable prospect play a spring season that began, for argument’s sake, in March and continued through May or June?"- Ari Wasserman, The Athletic

To me spring football would be like having a baseball season in Maine in January. Just let it go if we can't "live" with a fall-early winter season.
 
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#7
#7
Has any conference indicated they're even considering spring football or is all of this total internet speculation?

The big issue would be conflicting with other spring sports such as basketball, hockey and baseball for TV airtime. The real benefit to playing in the spring is to get the TV money but if there aren't timespots available or if the broadcasters don't have enough trucks and support staff to broadcast multiple major sports seasons simultaneously, why do it?
 
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#9
#9
Just like everything, decisions will be made for changes at the latest possible moment, based upon current situation. Play full slate>play conference slate only>spring ball>see you in fall of 2021. No matter how you slice it, someone's going to be inconvenienced depending on how things play out.
 
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#11
#11
I think a shortened season starting g in November is more realistic. How are these kids supposed to have their bodies ready to play again in the fall if they play in the spring.
 
#12
#12
No spring football if this fall season is canceled just come back for the fall in 2021 and God willing we will have this virus under control by then or have a vaccine. But then what virus could China be working on next ?
If it were ever proven that China engineered this then the NBA would double up kowtowing to them. 😏
 
#13
#13
Has any conference indicated they're even considering spring football or is all of this total internet speculation?

The big issue would be conflicting with other spring sports such as basketball, hockey and baseball for TV airtime. The real benefit to playing in the spring is to get the TV money but if there aren't timespots available or if the broadcasters don't have enough trucks and support staff to broadcast multiple major sports seasons simultaneously, why do it?

Notre Dame's AD said flat out that schools (including his own) should be prepared for it as a viable option, but I agree with you that the logistics of playing fall/winter/spring sports simultaneously seems somewhat absurd. Also, I don't have a lot of faith that the situation will be significantly better in the spring (how low do we need to see daily deaths relative to daily positives go, exactly?) so I can easily see another cycle of pushback from some of these programs/governors/medical officials and hiatus again.

Truthfully, I think you could make everything work with a dual split season if it were to come to that. It's not clean and certainly unideal, but that other choice would you have?

Fall '20: Conferences who choose to participate play (mostly, if not entirely) conference-only games to not miss out on revenue. Only conference titles are awarded. No bowls, unfortunately.
Spring '21: Conferences who didn't participate in the fall play, ideally with some inter-conference matchups. Award conference titles and throw together a small playoff or something to decide a national champion. Play a number of bowls proportionate to the participating teams.
Fall '21: The same teams who participated in Fall '20 play, but at this point we're more comfortable with cross-conference matchups and maybe even have decent stadium capacity. Have bowls/conference titles, naturally, and award a second national title.
Fall '22: Back to normal.

I would imagine pushback from the teams playing in Spring '21 would be minimal since they're not missing out on bowls or a national title in Fall '20 (while the Fall '20 teams get their shot in twelve months) and they'd be making the decision to play fewer games and thus earn less revenue of their own volition. This would obviously never get off the ground and only work (even in theory) if there was a relatively even split in terms of team quantity/quality between "seasons," but it still strikes me as more realistic than condensing 20+ games into around nine months.
 
#14
#14
Does anyone actually know of a family member or acquaintance that died of COVID? I don't and I know a lot of people. My 2 grandchildren had symptoms tested negative and are now fine. I know others who had symptoms, but are back enjoying life. The only deaths I hear of are from the news. I know there are deaths, but I am beginning to think that this is not any worse than car accidents, shootings, pneumonia or other bad things that happen. I believe we should play day games in the open air when the sun is shining and take temps of fans who enter the gates. There is no need for all of this panic. All we hear is a steady drum beat of hype from the media that has frightened everyone, including me. I am elderly and probably won't take a chance at going to games, but I hope everyone else can enjoy them if they wish.
 
#15
#15
@volroadwarrior
yes I know of a few people who have died from the Covid..They all had other medical problems also or underlying conditions as they say..the virus is real and can be deadly in the right people..My son in Florida just tested positive for the Covid also....Covid is real and if things do not turn around fast I believe we can all kiss fall sports goodbye....
 
#17
#17
Notre Dame's AD said flat out that schools (including his own) should be prepared for it as a viable option, but I agree with you that the logistics of playing fall/winter/spring sports simultaneously seems somewhat absurd. Also, I don't have a lot of faith that the situation will be significantly better in the spring (how low do we need to see daily deaths relative to daily positives go, exactly?) so I can easily see another cycle of pushback from some of these programs/governors/medical officials and hiatus again.

Truthfully, I think you could make everything work with a dual split season if it were to come to that. It's not clean and certainly unideal, but that other choice would you have?

Fall '20: Conferences who choose to participate play (mostly, if not entirely) conference-only games to not miss out on revenue. Only conference titles are awarded. No bowls, unfortunately.
Spring '21: Conferences who didn't participate in the fall play, ideally with some inter-conference matchups. Award conference titles and throw together a small playoff or something to decide a national champion. Play a number of bowls proportionate to the participating teams.
Fall '21: The same teams who participated in Fall '20 play, but at this point we're more comfortable with cross-conference matchups and maybe even have decent stadium capacity. Have bowls/conference titles, naturally, and award a second national title.
Fall '22: Back to normal.

I would imagine pushback from the teams playing in Spring '21 would be minimal since they're not missing out on bowls or a national title in Fall '20 (while the Fall '20 teams get their shot in twelve months) and they'd be making the decision to play fewer games and thus earn less revenue of their own volition. This would obviously never get off the ground and only work (even in theory) if there was a relatively even split in terms of team quantity/quality between "seasons," but it still strikes me as more realistic than condensing 20+ games into around nine months.

That makes sense. Notre Dame is a NBC property. NBC only has the NHL for sports in the spring and most of those games go to their NBCSN network. They may show about a dozen NHL games on NBC so getting 7 or 8 Saturdays of college football would be a boost for them
 
#18
#18
COVID is a giant sh!t show. No other way to describe it

Flu is also typically much worse in the Spring rather than the Fall. Other than buying time for a vacine, I don't see much benefit.

Now if they permanently moved NCAA Football and NFL to opposite times of year, that would be awesome and I would thoroughly enjoy football 12 months out of the year. It would be great for TV revenue too.
 
#19
#19
That makes sense. Notre Dame is a NBC property. NBC only has the NHL for sports in the spring and most of those games go to their NBCSN network. They may show about a dozen NHL games on NBC so getting 7 or 8 Saturdays of college football would be a boost for them
NBC also has the English Premier League to show in the spring, and having that in the morning with college football in the afternoon would be great for them.
 
#21
#21
That-Sounds-Good-Ill-Have-That-Dumb-and-Dumber.gif


I know I am being a little bit of a D*$% but for this season it really only hurts our adversaries. A year to get a new QB ready might actually help us.
But us having a season with arguably the best O-line in the country goes out the door.
 
#22
#22
Does anyone actually know of a family member or acquaintance that died of COVID?

Excellent point. If you don't "actually know of a family member or acquaintance that died of COVID" then it cannot exist.

Case solved.

And here I thought this might be complicated.
 
#23
#23
@volroadwarrior
yes I know of a few people who have died from the Covid..They all had other medical problems also or underlying conditions as they say..the virus is real and can be deadly in the right people..My son in Florida just tested positive for the Covid also....Covid is real and if things do not turn around fast I believe we can all kiss fall sports goodbye....

I hope your son gets healthy.
 
#24
#24
No spring football if this fall season is canceled just come back for the fall in 2021 and God willing we will have this virus under control by then or have a vaccine. But then what virus could China be working on next ?
China didnt create this virus, but our current leadership certainly helped spread it.
 
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