A full college football season that starts in October? Texas A&M chancellor says it's possible
With the COVID-19 pandemic still plaguing the globe, many in the sports world are starting to question whether football will be able to be played this fall.
There are still plenty of questions to be answered before then, though college football leaders and athletic directors are already planning for what the season could look like.
Should the start of the season — which officially kicks off on August 29, though most games start the next Saturday — be delayed, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said Wednesday that he still believes a full 13-game college football season is possible by starting as late as October.
[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]
“In some conversations with SEC officials and the NCAA, I think they’ve come to the conclusion that you can probably start football as late as October and still have a 13-game schedule,” Sharp said, via the Associated Press.
Sharp did quickly clarify that he’s fully aware that the global pandemic is still raging and there are plenty of unknowns still in play that could impact the season this fall. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were more than 424,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States, according to The New York Times.
“We don’t know when this is going to end,” Sharp said, via the Associated Press. “We don’t know when this is going to happen. For all we know, we may have football where we have coaches and players and referees on a field with a TV camera and nobody in the stadium. We don’t know.”
Could college football logistically start in October?
In theory, sure.
An October 3 start — which marks the first Saturday in October — would mean that the season was delayed by just a month, give or take. 13 weeks after October 3 — which would allow for a full 12-game season with one bye week — would mean that the regular season will wrap up just after Christmas. The NCAA could even eliminate the off week completely and hold conference championship games just after Christmas, too.
While that system would push bowl games and the College Football Playoff into January, and potentially even into February, it’s still very possible.
However, there are still plenty of logistical questions that need to be answered — there are school and holiday schedules to work around, possible weather-related issues, scheduling conflicts, athlete safety questions and more.
Perhaps most importantly, though, there would almost certainly need to be widespread testing and a vaccine available by then for the season to get started. Both of those things, at least as of now, aren’t expected to be available — even if some coaches don’t want to admit it.
As for playing games without fans, that’s not likely to happen either. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Yahoo Sports this week that college football won’t happen if students don’t return to campus, so having teams play on empty campuses without classes in session would be out of the question. After all, they are students first.
While Sharp is likely just like the rest of us, hoping that there will be football this fall and the sports world can get back to normal, it’s still too early to know or predict what’s going to happen.
SEC spokesman Herb Vincent told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he wasn’t aware what conversations Sharp was talking about regarding a possible October start, too.
“Our focus is on preparing to play the season as scheduled,” Vincent said, via the Associated Press. “As we have done in recent weeks, using the best available information from public health officials, at an appropriate time we will make decisions about the future.”
More from Yahoo Sports:
