Lincoln Riley is totally confident we’re going to have college football.
Lincoln Riley expressed great confidence that we’ll get to enjoy some college football soon.
Per ESPN’s David M. Hale, the Oklahoma Sooners head coach had this to say about whether we’re getting college football or not at some point in the age of the coronavirus.
“I just can’t imagine a scenario [where we don’t explore every option to play],” said Riley. “Whether it’s something we do in the fall, whether it’s a shortened season, whether it’s spring, there’s nothing we should take off the table.
“Regardless of what we have to do, I don’t think there’s anything we can’t work around and we can’t adjust and can’t make work in order to play college football. We’ve all got to do our part on that.”
Are we as confident as Lincoln Riley is about a college football season?
What this really boils down to is pretty simple: There is too much money at stake for there to not be a college football season in any capacity. While Riley is one of the few Power 5 head coaches in favor of having a spring college football season, we would all preferably not like to go that route. How will P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota Golden Gophers row the boat in two feet of snow in February?
Though the Ivy League and the Patriot League have canceled their seasons, as well as the Big Ten and the Pac-12 opting to go the conference-only route in 2020, Oklahoma plays in the Big 12, one of two Power 5 conferences, along with the SEC, that will play a college football season at all costs this fall if they can. The ACC may join them, but they could go either way here.
As long as testing protocol is the same among teams who are playing each other, whether that’s conference-only or not, college football can happen this fall. Moving it back to the spring must only be used as an absolute last resort. By doing that, players like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields won’t play for their respective Power 5 teams, which would be so good for Riley.
Overall, it feels like the conference-only route for the Power 5 will happen. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be grouped in with the ACC, as the Power 5 schools will establish uniformity among testing and other protocols to ensure we’ll have a college football season this fall. One would think the NCAA should be stepping up here, but when has it been a stand-up organization?
Riley’s confidence in that we’ll get college football is not what doomsdayers wanted to hear.
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