After NCAA Chairman Mark Emmert said he couldn’t see a college football season without students being on campus, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman echoed those sentiments.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby also agreed.
There is a growing belief those comments could cost Emmert his job because he’s not seeing the big picture of how important football is in the Power 5 conferences. Bowlsby also may come to regret his comments.
The Big East is a basketball powerhouse but not part of the Power 5.
It is still more than three months until the college football season is scheduled to begin, and most of the nation is trending favorably in the number of new covid-19 cases.
That could change as states start to return to normal and more tests are administered, but for now as long as people continue to practice social distancing and wear masks, things should improve.
On a side note, the opening of a few businesses does not mean it is OK to stop wearing masks and keeping a safe distance from strangers. That lady and her two teenage daughters who weren’t wearing masks Friday at the grocery store were endangering themselves and me.
Another thing to keep in mind: Many of the students who have been continuing their education at home may decide they like it better than being on campus.
Campuses always will have students if they are open, but in the past few years all the colleges and universities have encouraged online studies. Millions of dollars have been spent advertising online college courses.
This forced exposure to online studies could turn into more students wanting to do their work from home.
That shouldn’t affect attendance much. Students are generally allotted less than 10% of the seats.
It is also known that many major universities have debt service mainly because of expanded stadiums. If every school who has debt admitted it, the world would be shocked.
In the SEC alone, stadium and facilities growth has been like an arms war. If Alabama adds 5,000 seats, LSU is going to add 5,001.
Missouri received $57 million in bonds to get a portion of the $98 million spent for renovations and to add 6,000 seats, and bonds must be repaid.
Arkansas, as everyone knows, spent $160 million to to add a north end zone with more then 4,000 luxury suites and seats. To get that done, a bond issue of $120 million was done.
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 are all about expansion and improvements, too.
All of that is why football games are so vital to athletic budgets and why athletic directors are looking for ways to have a season.
Emmert’s feelings won’t matter in the decision made by the Power 5 schools. In fact, it probably aggravated them.
While polls have shown a majority of fans say they won’t attend a college game this fall unless the virus is more under control, football is still a long ways off.
What most colleges seem to be doing is exactly what the NFL is doing — preparing for the best-case scenario.
The NFL had its draft and has announced its schedule for this fall, giving hope to its fans that the season will happen. Fans, who are starved for football by now anyway, have something to look forward to.
The NFL is getting its ducks in order in case the virus is under control, and that’s exactly what the colleges are doing.
It is business as usual except in the future, no matter what, there are likely to be less students on campus and more learning online from home.