Hello college football fans. I know you’ve been following the cancellations/ postponements/ threats to change conferences or to play independents schedules etc., just as I have. And, like me, you’ve probably been trying to keep up with the status. So here it is as of August 15 at 2:38pm Eastern. Let’s start with the FCS: all conferences and independents, including newly declared NEC defector Robert Morris (they will be joining the Big South in 2021) have now at least postponed their season officially. The Ivy League was first. Some schools, notably James Madison and Elon, are desirous of playing an independent schedule, but finding opponents will be all but impossible at this stage.
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In the Group of 5, the MAC was the first FBS conference to at least postpone and are joined by the Mountain West, and independents, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Mexico St. The American Athletic, Sun Belt, Conference USA as well as Army, Liberty, and BYU are trying to keep the 2020 Fall Dream alive. I believe that if the ACC and/or SEC cancel, the Gof5 conferences will follow suit. The independents would then quit because there just wouldn’t be enough games to play. Assuming that no individual schools drop out, that gives us 38 of the original 65 squads are still hopeful.
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In the Power 5, the Big 10 was the first to at least postpone followed within minutes by the Pac 12. Notre Dame is planning to become the 15th member of the ACC, officially, for a single season. Joining the ACC, the SEC and Big 12 are still hopeful. The ACC may be the first of the 3 to postpone, based on everything I’ve been able to find, because they and the SEC are reaching out to the Big 10 and Pac 12 for data. If no individual schools drop out, it gives us 39 of the original 65.
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That gives us 77 our of 257 still hopeful. I suspect there will be more changes coming despite coaches, politics, and some players pushing to play. But for now, it just got a lot easier to be in the top 25.
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So, I’m saying, there’s a chance! Oh, one more note. The FCS playoffs (in fact all fall sports playoffs sanctioned by the NCAA) have been cancelled. The FBS College Football Playoff is not sanctioned (meaning that currently North Dakota St is the highest ranked champion in the NCAA – sorry LSU) and therefore cannot be cancelled by the governing body. 2020 has got to be the craziest year on record (at least for most of us reading this post) so who knows what’s going to happen?
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I’ll keep my ear to the ground and keep us current. Until next time, thanks for reading and sharing with others, G
