This week has brought plenty of updates as to the status of the upcoming college football season amid a pandemic. Here are a few highlights.
I can barely keep up with the fast-paced news cycles in college football. The end of July was hard to process. The first two weeks of August have been equally agonizing. If it feels like a lot is going on, that’s because it is.
For reference, you can check out the late-July edition here and the early August edition here. Here’s the latest.
Rice football delays its season
Rice football was the second Conference USA program to make a significant change in their upcoming schedule. After Old Dominion canceled its season, Rice opted to delay its season, postponing games against Houston and Army in early September, tentatively planning to start their season on September 26. The Owls are looking for opportunities to reschedule both of those canceled games.
Major cancelations
At the time of this publication, 54 FBS programs have canceled their 2020 fall seasons. Many hope to play in the spring, and Purdue’s Jeff Brohm has already put together a rather complete plan as to how to make that happen.
Here are the conferences/teams who won’t’ be playing this fall:
- MAC
- Big Ten
- Pac-12
- Mountain West
- UConn
- UMass
- Old Dominion
- New Mexico State
We now have more bowl spots available than teams planning to play in the fall.
FCS calls it mostly quits, but not quite
By the time Thursday afternoon had come and gone, the last of the FCS conferences had put an end to their league schedules. Several were allowing their teams to pursue non-conference games, ostensibly in search of the payday to help stave off the remaining costs associated with the forgone season. That left a dozen or so matchups between FBS and FCS teams on the schedule, including the revised Rice football season opener vs Lamar.
NCAA cancels fall championships
With members schools dropping left and right, it seemed like only a matter of time before this went official: the NCAA has canceled fall championships. The largest caveat, and its a big one, is FBS football. That’s the only fall sport that doesn’t fall under the NCAA Championship umbrella. For the time being, a College Football Playoff is still in the cards.
Last but not least … good news?
BREAKING: Great news.
SalivaDirect received approval this morning from the @US_FDA.
This could be one the first major game changers in fighting the pandemic. Rarely am I this enthusiastic. Here’s why.
Follow if interested.
— Andy Slavitt 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@ASlavitt) August 15, 2020
Progress on a cheaper COVID-19 test with results in the span of a few hours could be on the horizon. For as little as $10 per person, programs could test all personnel on a regular basis and get same-day results. Accurate and rapid testing isn’t the only problem facing college football right now, but solving this issue would be huge for the sports community.
