NCAA says athletic activities can start June 1: Time to get excited about college football

College football is slowly but surely moving toward having the 2020 season.

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March and shut down the sports world, there is optimism that the 2020 college football season will take place, in some fashion after the latest NCAA ruling.

The reason for optimism stems from the NCAA voting to approve voluntary athletic activities in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball to begin in June 1 and last through June 30, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo!

A decision on the other college sports is expected to come within the next week. The recruiting dead period is still in effect through June and a decision on a one-time transfer ruling is still expected to come soon.

As states around the country begin to move forward with their reopening plans while exercising caution and relying on the science, data and what medical officials and elected officials are telling them, it’s important to remember things can change quickly.

Assuming there is no second massive spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths, it’s moving toward a college football season this fall, albeit without fans, or considerably fewer fans than the stadium’s capacity.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith wouldn’t commit to being 100 percent confident in the season taking place, but provided it does, he is at least hopeful of having 20,000-30,000 fans in Ohio Stadium. A far cry from the 100,000 fans that pack The Shoe on Saturdays in the fall, but some fans is better than no fans.

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said on Get Up on Wednesday morning that he has no problem coaching his team without fans in the stands. If the alternative is no football, he is totally on board coaching games that don’t have fans.

Different conferences and different teams may have different rules as the COVID-19 cases are different from to state. So while some schools and leagues may get started with their offseason activities earlier than some, it sounds like all schools will get started sooner than later.

And that’s some much-needed good news after a two-month period of uncertainty, anxiety and a growing fear that the season may be canceled or postponed until the spring.

It’s not a guarantee everything moves swiftly or without some hurdles still to come, but it’s okay if college football fans want to have a celebratory toast now that we have our strongest sign to date that there will be a college football season despite the concerns about the novel coronavirus.

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