Clemson football quarterback Trevor Lawrence is fighting back against the NCAA.
The NCAA’s plan for college football in 2020 appeared to revolve around hoping COVID-19 would magically go away. That has obviously not happened and now we are in a situation where schedules are being released one day and schools are canceling the season the next.
Trevor Lawrence is the face of college football and has stepped up in a big way in the movement to not cancel the 2020 season. One strong criticism he has toward the NCAA makes perfect sense and should be called out by everyone frustrated with the governing body.
Speaking with the media on Monday evening, Lawrence said, “I feel like if the NCAA could just get together and put a plan together, we can do it.”
Trevor Lawrence: “I feel like if the NCAA could just get together and put a plan together, we can do it.”
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) August 10, 2020
Darien Rencher: “There’s a broken chain of command where they aren’t hearing us and we aren’t hearing them."
Trevor Lawrence just wants to see a plan from the NCAA to get the college football season in during the fall
Lawrence is calling out what is clear to see. The NCAA is doing nothing and it is up to the conferences to determine what is best for each school.
Smaller schools just don’t have the resources to play a season if they lose out on the money from non-conference games. That explains why the Mid-American Conference decided to push football to the spring. But Power 5 schools like Clemson have the money for COVID-19 testing and can set up their own bubble on campus. The NCAA just needs to take some time and do more research.
Trevor Lawrence: "We were like, 'We've got to do something quick and we’ve got to do something that will make people read it and make people listen.' All the momentum was going the wrong way for us, so we really wanted to change that."
— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor) August 10, 2020
Making a unilateral decision to cancel the season when certain schools have taken the proper precautions just isn’t necessary. If they need more time, then delay the season.
Lawrence notes the general lack of the NCAA having a plan. All he is asking for here is some communication between both sides. What changed between July and now to where they are suddenly ready to cancel?
Any 2020 season is going to be unique and will not feature every team. Maybe they can play a shortened schedule or even some type of tournament throughout the fall. But if not, the NCAA has to at least have a dialogue with the players and schools first. Telling everyone to take precautions, having them follow those, and ultimately just canceling the season makes zero sense.