How a spring season could work
Today's news is obviously a bummer, but I'm already seeing a ton of people on twitter saying there is no way a spring season could work logistically. While I'm not too optimistic at this point that we'll be in that much of a better place with respect to controlling COVID in the spring, I think there's certainly a way to make some version of spring football work. Let's address the most common objections one by one:
You can't ask students to play two seasons in a calendar year
This is the hardest thing to work around for sure and I'd agree you can't ask anyone to play two full seasons within that short of a time frame. Any version of spring football would likely be pretty significantly compressed. You'd want to start spring camp in late jan/feb, with a goal of playing games starting in March. With an 8 game schedule and a B1G Championship game, you could be done by mid May. That would give teams a ~3 month offseason before you start fall 2021 camp (which could be pushed back a couple of weeks if need be.
The NFL draft is in the spring, you can't play then
The baseball draft takes play during the end of the college baseball season, and that seems to work. There's also no reason the draft can't be moved back a month or so
Draft-eligible players won't want to risk injury
Will there be some people that sit out; for sure. But more than half the roster isn't draft-eligible, and there's plenty of players who will want to play to improve their draft stock.
I'm not saying it will be easy or that it's even likely to happen. But there are several options to get some form of a spring season if people are willing to be somewhat creative/flexible.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:24 PM ^
Here's how I look at it. We don't know if seniors will get another year of eligibility. But, how many draft eligible starters from OSU will opt out of a spring season? I'd guess the following would strongly consider it.
- Chris Olave
- Thayer Munford
- Josh Myers
- Wyatt Davis
- Luke Farrell
- Justin Fields
- Trey Sermon
- Jonathon Cooper
- Baron Browning
- Shaun Wade
- Josh Proctor
Compare that to UM.
- Nico Collins
- Jalen Mayfield
I like the spring roster matchup much better than the fall version. Let's find a way to work through the kinks and have a spring season. Any drawback with the draft and not enough recover time between spring & fall seasons will be easily forgotten to end this OSU losing streak.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^
Given how we're Michigan fans and life is pain, I wouldn't expect this.
Jeudy didn't sit out against us
Haskins didn't sit out the Rose Bowl
And of course we had like three players sit for the Peach Bowl, including an undrafted running back
Tis life for the wolverines
August 11th, 2020 at 5:30 PM ^
Given that college presidents called the shots for this postponement of fall, I would be surprised if they would actually cause spring football to happen. I think that is mainly a dream of media, fans, players, and football coaches. Not sure why the presidents would feel any pressure to have spring football unless there is huge money involved and the Covid issues are more or less behind us. Obviously, athletic directors and coaches are not part of the decision.
It would be surprising if spring football amounted to anything more than intra-division B1G games in this area, with a single B1G playoff between divisional champs. Seems a little like intramural football.
I wonder how college football can survive in its form that used to be.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
It can't. We've just seen the bubble pop.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:37 PM ^
If they can't sack up and play now, they aren't playing in the spring.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:44 PM ^
If by sack up, do you mean that university presidents by January will have developed an appetite for long-term Covid related liability, then the answer is no.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:37 PM ^
Doesn’t seem to far fetched. Literally the most common thing I hear from people around me about Covid is that it will completely go away November 4th.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:42 PM ^
One idea that should be considered:
If people are really concerned about the players playing too many games in a calendar year, they should consider putting a limit on how many plays each player is allowed to play per game (only for 2021). If it's really all about player safety, that's a common sense solution. Teams would have to rotate in more backups, which would be interesting but not necessarily worse, and it would keep the players safer.
Liga MX does something similar - each team is required to play its young players for at least 1,000 minutes per season to promote talent development. Obviously the motivation here would be safety, but the outcome would be the same - teams would have to use young players more than they otherwise would have. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, especially if it's a short term solution.
August 11th, 2020 at 8:41 PM ^
I feel like I'm living in Bizarro World.
A year from now, Nico Collins will be playing 16 games over a 17-week span.
Last year Joe Burrow played 15 games in about a 17-week span.
Urban Meyer and other knuckleheads are saying "there's no way" college players can play 8-10 games, take 3 months off, and then play another 8-12 games (a.k.a. 16-22 games) over a span of about 45 weeks.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:39 PM ^
For all the suck that is 2020, if they play a spring season and then again in the fall then 2021 would be kick ass.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:41 PM ^
The OP provided some good objections to a spring schedule. Unfortunately, the ways to overcome the objections aren't exactly comprehensive.
January to February is normally the time of year when the most weight training is done. Do you give up development for 2021 season to play a handful of games in March? Is everyone up for outdoor football in Michigan in March?
The stars are usually also the draft eligible players - do you really want to see watered down rosters & backup quarterbacks?
August 11th, 2020 at 9:43 PM ^
I feel like my dog died
August 11th, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
A spring season is not viable . A watered down spring season where many college stars don’t play followed by a watered down shortened fall season is a terrible idea. Just wait until fall 21’