If it’s too dangerous for a team from one conference to play one from a different league, then why isn’t it too dangerous for conference foes to face each other on the football field this fall?
That’s one of the questions, perhaps the most asked question, bandied about since the Big Ten announced two weeks ago its members would only play conference opponents this season amid concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic that has crippled America’s way of life. The Pac-12 later decided its teams will only play each other, as well.
College athletics are dealing with those ramifications, especially football. Other sports are being played, though with extreme caution, but football is a different animal. Ever play the game?
Sweat, spit, blood, snot, you name it, guys get it all over them, and not just from their own bodies. It’s everywhere. It’s football.
So, as ACC Commissioner John Swofford and the league’s brass work toward determining a layout for this coming season, in whatever form it eventually takes, why might an ACC-only schedule make sense?
“I’ll give you what I was told early because I asked the same question,” North Carolina Coach Mack Brown replied during a zoom session Tuesday. “And each conference, the way I understand it, will come out with a medical protocol and that medical protocol will have to be adhered to by the teams in your league. And you’re not going to be allowed to play teams outside of your conference unless they can go by the medical protocol to make sure that everybody’s safe.
“That’s the only thing that I’ve been told about conference and nonconference games. I haven’t been told anything else.”
ACC programs have the operating budgets and personnel to execute the same standard across the board, thus when UNC goes to Miami or Pittsburgh visits Chapel Hill, everyone involved will understand they’re on the same COVID playing field.
Among the options are delaying the start of the season, cutting the schedule from 12 to nine or ten games and playing just league members while also taking care of Notre Dame, or perhaps forming an alliance with another conference.
Perhaps a 10-game slate that includes eight ACC contests plus matching games versus Notre Dame and SEC teams giving both conferences and the Independent Irish national schedules, maintaining the value of their TV contracts and facing programs meeting exact COVID protocols will allow for comfort moving forward while also providing an appealing product will be adopted.
Brown doesn’t really know, though he’s considered the options.
“Like all of us, I’ve sat and had my opinions and thought about what this would look like and what this would look like and really, I’ve got no input,” he said. “I told (UNC Director of Athletics) Bubba (Cunningham) my goal would be for the medical staffs to make it safe for all of us, not just the players, but the coaches, the fans, you guys (media), make it safe for everybody.
“And if we can figure that out, we need to play, and the guys want to play… You hear the eight-plus-one, you hear the 10-plus-one, I don’t have any idea what I’m doing with scheduling except that I’m going to play whoever Bubba tells me to play and John Swofford tells me to play. I want to play all of the games if it’s safe, and so that’s been my focus.”
Swofford will announce the ACC’s plans July 30, the same day SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey also reveals what schedule and protocols his league will adopt.
